"Mtir: 


7     -9   »   9     d      O 


T' 


Jss?i?s?aT^:Sw^a-ssssg?SiT5^s^ 


/^//^//fVW-r  //,i^/J>. 


X? 


c  (t:  .t^^v^^>7 


JUNIUS   UNMASKED; 

OR 

LORD   GEORGE   SACKVILLE 

PROVED   TO    BE   JUNIUS. 

WITH   AN   APPENDIX, 

SHOWING, 

THAT  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  LETTERS  OF  JUNIUS 

WAS  ALSO 


THE  AUTHOR  OF  '  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  GEORGE  III,' 

AND  AUTHOR  OF  '  THE  NORTH  BRITON,' 

ASCRIBED  TO  MR.  WILKES. 


EMBELLISHED  WITH  A  PRINT  OF  SACKVILLE. 


Movet  Urna  JVomen. 


BOSTON: 

HILLIARD,  GRAY,  LITTLE,  AND  WILKINS. 

1828. 


NO  7 


DISTRICT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  to  wit: 

District  Clerk's  Office. 
BE  IT  REMEMBERED,  That  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  April, 
A.  D.  1828,  in  the  fifty-second  year  of  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  Hilliard,  Gray,  Little,  and  Wilkins,  of  the 
said  district,  have  deposited  in  this  office  the  title  of  a  book,  the  right 
whereof  they  claim  as  proprietors,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit : 
— "  Junius  Unmasked  ;  or  Lord  George  Sackville  proved  to  be  Ju- 
nius. With  an  Appendix,  showing,  that  the  Author  of  the  Letters 
of  Junius  was  also  the  Author  of  '  The  History  of  the  Reign  of 
George  III,'  and  Author  of  '  The  North  Briton,'  ascribed  to  Mr. 
Wilkes.  Embellished  with  a  Print  of  Sackville.  Movet  Urna  JVo- 
men." — In  conformity  to  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  entitled  "  An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  secur- 
ing the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  pro- 
prietors of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  menioned : "  and 
also  to  an  act,  entitled  "  An  act  supplementary  to  an  act,  entitled, 
'  An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  seeming  the  copies  of 
maps,  charts,  and  books  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies 
during  the  times  therein  mentioned  ; '  and  extending  the  benefits 
thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and  etching  historical  and 
other  prints.  JNO.  W.  DAVIS, 

Clerk  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts, 


HSNRV  MORSE  STKFHCBS 


c 


■dx^^ 


^ 


CAMBRIDGE. 
HILLIARD,  METCALF,  AND  COMPANY. 


*•      •    ♦. 


•      •         «     • 

••a'  ••       f         •*  ••«       •*< 


CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Preface       1 

Chapter. 

I.     History  of  the  Letters  of  Junius  and  sup- 
posed Authors 7 

II.     Memoir  of  Sackville        -         -        -        -    20 

'  III.     Presumptive  Argument  -         -         -    46 

IV.     Argument  from  Sackville' s  "  Address  "    -     69 

V.     Argument  from  the  "  Considerations  "     -     75 

VI.     Argument  from  the  "  Reply  to  Burgoyne  "      97 

VII.     Argument  from  Sackville's  Speeches        -  103 

VIII.     Concluding  Remarks     -         -         -         -  107 

Appendix. 

I.     Junius  the  Author  of  "  The  History  of  the 

Reign  of  George  III."         -        -        -  119 
II.     Junius  the  Author  of  "  The  North  Briton  "  142 

Notes  --..-.-         169 


509654 


ERRATA. 

Page    57,  line  16,  lor  note  read  vote. 
"     107,    "      6,    "  destruction  read  detraction. 
"     113,    "    17,   "    TAis  read  if  is. 


PREFACE. 


It  is  now  some  years,  since  I  was  convinced  by 
what  may  be  called  internal  evidence,  that  lord 
George  Sackville,  otherwise  called  lord  George 
Germain,  was  the  author  of  the  celebrated  Letters 
of  Junius.  The  comparison  of  a  short  piece,  writ- 
ten by  him  before  those  letters  were  published,  ex- 
hibited such  a  co-incidence  in  some  striking  peculiari- 
ties of  style,  as  left  with  me  no  doubt  on  the  subject. 
The  reasons  of  my  opinion,  then  committed  to 
writing,  are  now  before  me.  A  subsequent  perusal 
of  Woodfall's  edition  of  Junius  confirmed  my  per- 
suasion by  a  great  variety  of  considerations,  which 
I  also  recorded  at  the  time.  Having  this  impression, 
I  lately  procured  the  "  Critical  Enquiry  "  of  Mr. 
Coventry,  published  at  London,   1825;    in  which 

1 


ii  PREFACE. 

he  endeavors  to  prove,  that  Sackville  was  the  author 
of  the  letters  of  Junius  ; — a  point,  which,  I  think,  he 
has  proved  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt.  Yet, 
however  strong  and  unanswerable  may  be  the  argu- 
ment of  Mr.  Coventry,  there  is  a  class  of  proofs, 
yet  stronger  and  more  irresistible,  which  he  has  in 
a  great  measure  overlooked  ; — I  mean  the  internal 
proofs,  derived  from  habits  of  thought  and  pecuhari- 
ties  of  style. 

My  original  narrow  field  of  comparison  I  have  re- 
cently greatly  enlarged,  not  only  by  the  letters  and 
speeches  of  lord  Sackville,  contained  in  Mr.  Cov- 
entry's book ;  but  more  especially  and  chiefly  by  two 
considerable  pamphlets,  written,  as  I  am  persuaded 
and  shall  attempt  to  prove,  by  lord  Sackville ; — 
works,  of  which  ]Mr.  Coventry  was  ignorant.  While 
therefore  I  shall  not  fail  to  present  to  the  reader  the 
substance  of  Mr.  Coventry's  argument,  I  shall  bring 
forward  an  entirely  new  argument,  constituting  the 
greater  part  of  my  work. 

It  ought  to  be  considered,  that  there  are  different 
kinds  of  proof; — some  demonstrative,  founded  on 


PREFACE.  Ill 

definitions,  and  proceeding  link  by  link  with  intui- 
tive evidence  ;  others  prohcible,  founded  on  a  com- 
bination of  circumstances,  yet  perhaps  amounting  to 
moral  certainty  and  producing  the  most  unshaken 
persuasion.  There  may  be  such  ''  a  conjugation  of 
probabilities,"  as  will  strike  the  mind  with  the  force 
of  a  mathematical  demonstration.  For  instance, 
there  is  no  more  doubt,  that  the  letters  of  Junius, 
which  we  now  read,  were  first  published  in  London 
in  the  years  1769,  1770,  &ic.,  than  there  is,  that  the 
three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  an- 
gles. I  hope,  therefore,  it  w^ill  not  be  thought,  that 
there  is  any  thing  unbecoming  or  presumptuous  in 
the  title  of  this  book, — *  Sackville  proved  to  be  Ju- 
nius.' I  am  satisfied  the  proof  is  made  out ;  and, 
I  flatter  myself,  others  will  be  satisfied. 

In  the  comparison  as  to  style,  I  am  aware,  that  it 
will  be  easy  to  take  out  a  single  supposed  co-inci- 
dence, and  to  say,  that  it  amounts  to  nothing,  because 
the  same  ivoi'd  or  phrase  may  be  found  in  other  wri- 
ters. The  argument  rests  on  the  whole  resemblance ; 
yet  the  whole  must  be  made  up  of  particular  instan- 


iv  PREFACE. 

ces.  If  in  a  court  of  justice  I  should  endeavor  to 
prove,  that  the  prisoner  was  the  murderer,  and  should 
begin  with  alleging,  that  the  prisoner's  eyes  were 
black,  as  the  murderer's  eyes  were  known  to  be  ; — 
the  man,  who  should  limit  his  attention  to  this  single 
proof,  might  indeed  cavil  at  my  argument.  He 
might  exclaim, — '  This  is  absurd  !  The  eyes  of  ten 
thousand  people  are  black.'  But  if  I  should  go  on 
to  show,  that  the  prisoner  has  the  same  cast  or  squint 
of  his  eyes,  the  same  features  throughout,  the  same 
stature,  the  same  gait,  and  the  same  limp  with  the 
murderer ;— that  he  was  at  the  place,  in  the  time, 
when  and  where  the  murder  was  committed ; — 
and  that  he  had  been  previously  engaged  in  a  quarrel 
with  the  deceased,  and  had  a  strong  interest  in  put- 
ting him  out  of  the  way  ; — if  he  never  even  denied 
his  guilt  and  asserted  his  innocence  ; — and  if  at  a 
time,  when  he  thought  he  was  dying,  he  had  sent  for 
a  son  of  the  deceased,  with  whom  he  had  never 
quarrelled,  and  in  a  mysterious  speech  asked  his 
forgiveness  for  any  possible  injury  ; — If  these  and 
other  numerous  corresponding  circumstances  should 


PREFACE.  V 

all  be  established ;  it  would  then  be  seen,  that  what 
was  trifling  in  itself,  yet  was  of  weight  in  its  connex- 
ions; and  that  a  multiplicity  of  co-inciding  circum- 
stances amounted,  if  not  to  demonstration,  yet  to 
something  higher,  than  the  positive  testimony  of  a 
witness,  or  even  the  prisoner's  confession. 

If  the  authorship  of  Junius  be  established.  It  may 
prevent  for  the  future  much  Idle  speculation  on  the 
subject.  Nor  can  It  fail  to  be  considered  as  a  very 
extraordinary  circumstance,  that  the  English  politi- 
cal writer,  most  generally  admired  by  Americans, 
should  prove  to  be  the  inveterate  enemy  of  Ameri- 
can liberty, — the  stern  British  Minister,  who  devised 
and  ordered  the  murderous,  savage  inroads,  which 
covered  with  desolation  and  Indescribable  horrors 
some  of  the  fairest  villages  of  the  American  frontier. 

B ,  Dec.  1827. 


1^ 


>    > 
I    J 


1 ,»    J       '  • 


JUNIUS  UNMASKED. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  History  and  supposed  Authors  of  the  Letters  of 

Junius. 

The  first  public  letter  of  Junius,  contained  in  the 
edition  prepared  by  the  author,  was  published  at 
London,  in  the  Public  Advertiser,  of  which  Mr. 
Henry  Sampson  Wood  fall  was  the  proprietor,  Janu- 
ary 21,  1769;  his  last  letter  was  published  January 
21,  1772.  But  among  the  miscellaneous  letters  of 
the  same  writer,  found  in  Woodfall's  edition,  there 
is  one,  with  the  signature  of  Junius,  dated  Novem- 
ber 21,  1768.  Among  his  other  signatures  were 
those  of  Poplicola,  Mnemon,  Atticus,  Lucius, 
Junius,  Philo-Junius,  Nemesis,  Domitian,  Vindex, 
and  Veteran.  The  first  public  address,  received 
from  him  by  Mr.  Woodfall,  was  dated  April  28, 
1767.  The  last  private  letter  was  dated  January 
19,  1773;  so  that  he  was  a  correspondent  of  Mr. 


8  JUNIUS    UNRU^KED. 

Woodfall  for  nearly  six  years.  Early  in  1772  the 
Letters  of  Junius  were  collected  in  a  volume,  under 
the  direction  of  the  author,  and  published  with  the 
motto — "  Stat  Nominis  Umbra." 

The  letters  of  Junius,  folded  small,  with  an  envel- 
ope, were  sent  by  the  hands  of  some  chairman  or 
ticket-porter  to  the  office  of  Mr.  Woodfall.     The 
original  copies   of  the  letters   were  returned  to  the 
author,  as  soon  as  they  were   done  with,  addressed 
to  Mr.  William  Middleton  or  Mr.  John  Fretly,  and 
left    at    a    coffee-house,  a  hint  being  given  in  the 
Advertiser,  as  '  C.  at  the  usual  place.''     They  were 
called  for  by  a  chairman  or  ticket-porter,  and  deliv- 
ered either  to  the  author  or  his  agent,  in  waiting  in 
some  part  of  the  city.     Mr.  Jackson   "  once  saw  a 
tall  gentleman,  dressed  in  a  light  coat,  with  bag  and 
sword,  throw  into  the  office   door,  opening  in  Ivy- 
lane,  a  letter  of  Junius',  w^iich  he  picked   up  and 
immediately  followed  the  bearer  of  it  into  St.  Paul's 
Church-yard,  where  he  got  into  a  hackney  coach 
and  drove  off." 

The  private  letters  of  Junius  being  written  in  the 
same  hand  with  the  public  letters,  it  is  probable, 
from  the  interlineations  in  the  letters,  that  no  aman- 
uensis was  employed.  Indeed  the  writer's  liand 
was  evidently  disguised.  The  return  of  the  letters 
provided  in  a  great  degree  for  his  safety. 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  9 

It  is  probable,  that  Junius  had  an  agent  in  con- 
veying the  letters,  so  as  not  to  expose  his  own  per- 
son. He  says  to  Woodfall — "  The  gentleman,  who 
transacts  the  conveyancing  part  of  our  correspond- 
ence, tells  me,  there  was  much  difficulty  last  night. 
For  this  reason,  and  because  it  could  be  no  way 
material  for  me  to  see  a  paper  on  Saturday,  which 
is  to  appear  on  Monday,  1  resolved  not  to  send  for 
it." — Yet  it  is  possible,  that  Junius  in  disguise,  at 
first  if  not  afterwards,  repaired  to  the  bar  of  the 
coffee-house  for  his  letters,  for  he  says  of  a  coffee- 
house ; — "  Where  it  is  absolutely  impossible  /  should 
be  known." 

The  letters  of  Junius  have  been  ascribed  to  a 
multitude  of  individuals.  I  am  not  sure,  that  the 
following  list  includes  all  the  supposed  authors  : — 
Horace  Walpole,  Charles  Lloyd,  private  secretary 
of  Mr.  Grenville,  John  Roberts,  Samuel  Dyer, 
W.  G.  Hamilton,  Dr.  Butler,  bishop  of  Hereford, 
Rev.  P.  Rosenhagen,  Thomas  Hollis,  W.  H.  C.  Ben- 
tinck,  J.  P.  De  Lolme,  Dr.  Wilmot,  J.  Home  Tooke, 
Hugh  Macauley  Boyd,  lord  Shelburne,  colonel 
Barre,  Dr.  Gilbert  Stuart,  John  Wilkes,  John  Dun- 
ning, Richard  Glover,  the  earl  of  Chatham,  Sir 
William  Jones,  Edward  Gibbon,  Henry  Flood,  Ed- 
mund Burke,  and  Sir  Philip  Francis.  I  think  it 
wholly  unnecessary  to  beat  down  the  shght  preten- 


10  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

sions,  set  up  in  favor  of  almost  all  these  claimants. 
Dr.  Johnson  declared,  that  he  knew  no  person,  ex- 
cept Burke,  who  was  capable  of  writing  the  letters 
of  Junius.  Yet  the  temper,  the  sentiments,  the  style, 
and  the  voluntary  disclaimer  of  Burke  have,  I  be- 
lieve, produced  a  general  persuasion,  that  he  could 
not  be  the  author.  The  case  of  Sir  Philip  Francis 
is  set  forth  ingeniously  by  Mr.  John  Taylor  in  his 
work,  entided,  "  The  Identity  of  Junius  with  a  distin- 
guished living  Character  ; "  yet  his  mass  of  evidence 
dwindles  down  before  an  exact  scrutiny,  and  is 
overpowered  completely  by  the  evidence  in  favor 
of  lord  Sackville. 

Mr.  Bisset  says,  that  "  most  of  the  writers  against 
Junius,  in  the  periodical  publications  of  the  times, 
address  him  as  an  Irishman."  It  is  almost  certain, 
that  the  author  of  Junius  received  his  education  in 
Ireland.  He  uses  the  term  collegian,  in  the  sense 
of  an  academic  or  gownsman,  differently,  it  is  said, 
from  its  use  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  : — "  the 
little  sneering  sophistries  of  a  collegian."  The 
phrase  '  so  far  forth '  I  find  in  bishop  Berkeley  of 
Ireland,  but  I  doubt  whether  it  is  found  in  any  good 
writer  in  1769,  unless  he  had  been  educated  in 
Ireland  : — "  So  far  forth,  as  it  operates,  it  constitutes 
a  house  of  commons."  The  following  use  of  shall 
and  should  is  hardly  pure  English  : — "  In  vain  shall 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  11 

you  look  for  protection  to  that  venal  vote  :  " — "  If 
from  the  profoundest  contempt,  I  should  ever  rise 
into  anger,  he  should  soon  find,  that  all  I  have 
already  said  of  him  was  lenity  and  compassion." 

I  am  satisfied  no  man,  who  had  not  been  conver- 
sant ehher  with  Ireland  or  Scotland,  would  have 
employed  the  word  mean  in  this  manner  : — ''  They, 
who  object  to  detached  parts  of  Junius'  letter,  either 
do  not  mean  him  fairly,  or  have  not  considered,  &z;c." 
— "  I  meant  the  cause  and  the  public  ;  both  are 
given  up." — "You  are  satisfied,  that  I  mean  you 
well." — ^"  By  all,  that 's  honorable,  I  mean  nothing 
but  the  cause."  The  bitterness  of  Junius  towards 
the  Scotch  proves,  that  he  was  not  a  Scotchman. 

There  are  other  reasons  for  considering  the  author 
of  Junius  as  well  acquainted  with  Ireland.  It  is,  then, 
altogether  probable,  tliat  either  Burke,  Sir  Philip 
Francis,  or  lord  Sackville  was  the  author.  In  re- 
spect to  Burke,  a  late  writer,  Mr.  Charles  Butler, 
says — "  It  is  known,  that  Sir  Wilham  Draper  at  first 
divided  his  suspicions  of  the  authorship  of  Junius  be- 
tween Burke  and  lord  George  Sackville,  and  that,  on 
Burke's  unequivocal  denial  of  it,  he  transferred  them 
wholly  to  his  Lordship."  Now,  as  Sir  William  Dra- 
per entered  personally  into  a  conflict  with  Junius,  he 
was  much  interested  to  know  the  author.  He  was 
intimate  with  lord  Granby,  commander  in^chief,  and 


12  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

could  hear  the  suggestions  of  the  men  in  power  in 
regard  to  the  supposed  author.  It  is  probable  there- 
fore, that  his  suspicions  were  transferred  to  the 
right  person. — Mr.  Bosvvell,  in  his  Life  of  Johnson, 
remarks — "  He  said,  1779,  I  should  have  believed 
Burke  to  be  Junius,  because  I  know  no  man  but 
Burke,  who  is  capable  of  writing  these  letters  ;  but 
Burke  spontaneously  denied  it  to  me.  The  case  would 
have  been  different,  had  I  asked  him,  if  he  was  the 
author ;  a  man  so  questioned,  as  to  an  anonymous 
publication,  may  think  he  has  a  right  to  deny  it." 
This  denial,  taking  into  view  the  moral  character  of 
Burke,  will  probably  be  deemed  decisive.  There 
are  certainly  many  points  of  resemblance  in  the  style 
of  Junius  and  Burke  5  but  there  are  also  striking 
diversities.  The  resemblance  may  be  owing  to  an 
Irish  education  and  to  the  study  of  the  same  models 
of  style ;  the  diversities  are  hardly  reconcileable 
with  the  identity  of  Burke  and  Junius. 

Mr.  Bissett  has  stated  various  reasons  for  and 
against  considering  Mr.  Burke  as  the  author  of  the 
letters  of  Junius.  In  his  political  principles  gener- 
ally, but  particularly  in  hostility  to  the  Grafton  ad- 
ministration and  to  the  doctrines  of  lord  Mansfield, 
Burke  agreed  with  Junius.  Burke  had  also  the 
requisite  talents  and  genius.  But  the  considerations 
on  the  other  side  appear  to  be  unanswerable.     The 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  13 

Intellectual  character  of  Junius  differs  exceedingly 
from  that  of  Burke.  "In  Junius  we  have  more  of 
perspicuity  than  of  expansion ;  more  of  pungency 
than  of  force. — He  rapidly  penetrates  into  particu- 
lars, but  does  not  rise  to  general  views, — Junius 
keeps  directly  to  his  subject :  the  rapidly  associadng 
mind  of  Burke  pursues  his  thoughts  through  a  train 
of  combinations. — The  style  of  Junius  is  clear,  cor- 
rect,  and  precise,  with  no  great  variety  :  the  style 
of  Burke  copious,  brilliant,  forcible,  with  wonderful 
variety." — Besides  this  diversity,  the  sentiments  of 
Junius  differ  from  the  known  sentiments  of  Burke. 
Junius  speaks  of  lord  Rockingham's  administration, 
as  "  dissolving  in  its  own  weakness  : "  of  that  admin- 
istration Burke  had  been  a  member  and  was  a  stren- 
uous supporter.  Lord  Rockingham  was  his  patron 
and  friend,  and  had  advanced,  towards  the  purchase 
of  his  villa,  ten  thousand  pounds.  Junius  was  in 
favor  of  triennial  parliaments  :  Burke  was  uniformly 
averse  to  the  project.  Junius  disapproves  of  the 
opposition  to  Mr.  Grenville's  laws  respecting  Amer- 
ica :  Burke  constantly  opposed  American  taxation. 
— Burke  also  himself,  in  one  of  his  speeches,  speaks 
thus  of  Junius, — "How  comes  Junius  to  have 
broke  through  the  cobwebs  of  the  law,  and  to  range 
uncontrolled  and  unpunished  through  the  land  ? 
The  myrmidons  of  the  court  pursue  him  in  vain. 
2 


14  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

They  will  not  spend  their  time  on  me  or  you  ;  they 
disdain  such  vermin,  when  the  mighty  hoar  of  the 
forest,  that  has  broke  their  toils,  is  before  them. 
When  I  saw  his  attack  upon  the  king,  my  blood  run 
cold ;  not,  that  there  are  not  in  that  composition 
many  bold  truths,  by  which  a  prince  might  profit : 
it  was  the  rancor  and  venom,  with  which  I  was 
struck.  When  I  expected  from  his  daring  flight  his 
fall  and  final  ruin,  I  behold  him  soaring  higher,  and 
coming  souse  upon  both  houses  of  parliament  5  nor 
has  he  dreaded  the  terrors  of  your  brow.  Sir.  [Sir 
Fletcher  Norton.]  King,  Lords,  and  Commons 
are  the  sport  of  his  fury." 

It  is  hardly  credible,  that  Burke  would  speak 
thus  of  Junius,  if  he  was  himself  the  writer  of  the 
letters  of  Junius.  And  indeed,  I  think,  from  read- 
ing the  writings  of  Burke,  that  he  was  incapable  of 
the  venom  and  rancor,  certainly  in  respect  to  pubhc 
men  in  England,  with  which  Junius  is  chargeable. 
Besides,  it  is  known,  that  Mr.  Burke  prosecuted 
Mr.  Woodfall  for  a  libel  in  1784,  and  obtained  a 
verdict  of  one  hundred  pounds  damages.  It  is  hard- 
ly possible,  that  the  author  of  Junius,  the[friend  of  Mr. 
Woodfall,  giving  him  all  the  profits  from  the  sale  of 
his  letters,  should  have  prosecuted  for  a  libel  the 
printer  of  all  his  own  libels. 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


15 


In  respect  to  Sir  Philip  Francis,  so  far  as  style  is 
concerned,  it  is  not  impossible,  that  he  was  the  author 
of  Junius.  Though  he  left  Ireland,  when  he  was  ten 
years  of  age  ;  yet  from  his  father  he  might  afterwards 
have  derived  a  tinge  of  the  Irish  idiom.  Sir  Philip 
was  born  in  1740.  The  first  letter  from  the  author  of 
Junius,  imder  a  different  signature,  was  dated  April 
28,  1767.  At  this  period,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six, 
is  it  probable,  that  Sir  Philip  could  have  been  quali- 
fied to  commence  those  writings,  for  the  production  of 
which  Dr.  Johnson  knew  no  one  to  be  competent 
excepting  Mr.  Burke  ?  But  Sir  Philip  at  this  time 
held  an  important  post  in  the  war  office,  which  he 
retained  till  1772.  In  the  discharge  of  its  duties  it 
is  impossible,  that  he  should  have  found  leisure  for 
the  great  labors  of  Junius. 

In  a  private  letter,  Nov^ember  27,  1771,  Junius 
says — "  After  long  experience  of  the  world  I  affirm 
before  God,  I  never  knew  a  rogue,  who  was  not 
unhappy."  Sackville  might  say  this  at  the  age  of 
fifty-six  ;  but  how  could  Sir  Philip  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one  ?  Two  years  before  this  Junius  said — 
"  Long  habit  has  taught  me  to  pass  by  all  the 
declamation,  with  which  champions  parade.  I  look 
upon  it  as  no  better  than  those  flourishes  of  the 
back  sword,  with  which  the  great  masters  of  my  time 
in   the    amphitheatre    entertained   the    spectators." 


/ 


16  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

June  17G9, — "I  remember  seeing  Busembaum,  Sua- 
rez,  Molina,  and  a  score  of  othci  Jesuitical  books, 
burnt  at  Paris  for  their  sound  casuistry  by  the  hands 
of  the  common  hangman.  Lett.  Apr.  1768."  If 
this  occurrence  was  in  17G4,  when  the  order  of 
Jesuits  was  put  down  in  France,  it  is  utterly  improb- 
able, that  Sir  Philip,  who  had  just  entered,  in  1763, 
upon  his  labors  in  the  war  office,  could  have  found 
time  to  visit  Paris  :  if,  as  has  been  thought,  the 
occurrence  was  many  years  before,  then  Sir  Philip 
was  too  young  to  have  gone  abroad.  Sackville 
accompanied  his  father,  the  duke  of  Dorset,  to 
Paris  ill  1738,  when  he  was  twenty-one  years  of 
age.  When  Sir  Philip  was  questioned  on  this  sub- 
ject in  1813  by  the  editor  of  the  Monthly  Magazine, 
he  rc[)licd — "  Whether  you  will  assist  in  giving  cur- 
rency to  a  silly,  malignant/a/^eAoo^  is  a  question  for 
your  own  discretion.  To  me  it  is  a  matter  of  per- 
fect indifTerence." 

In  respect  to  any  similarity  of  style  between  Sir 
Philip  and  Junius,  to  show  which  a  long  array  of 
passages  is  produced  ;  it  is  easily  accounted  for  by 
the  admiration,  with  which  the  letters  of  Junius  must 
have  been  studied  by  Sir  Philip,  and  by  his  diligent 
imitation,  of  their  supposed  excellencies.  Mr.  Tay- 
lor has  shown  a  co-incidence  of  thought  and  style. 
If  he  could  have  produced  some  writing  of  Sir  Phil- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


17 


ip  antecedent  to  the  letters  of  Junius,  his  argument 
might  have  been  of  some  value. 

The  resemblance  in  respect  to  hand-writing,  on 
which  Mr.  Taylor  places  some  reliance,  I  think  on 
careful  examination  amounts  to  nothing.  Sack- 
ville's  writing,  though  twenty-five  years  earlier,  has 
a  strong  resemblance  to  that  of  Junius.  In  my 
judgment  it  is  the  same  hand.  That  Sir  Philip 
wrote  tho\  and  wihance,  zngross,  znforce,  iVislave, 
&tc.  instead  of  though^  e?ihance,  &ic.  in  the  manner 
of  Junius,  proves  nothing  of  itself,  for  Sackville 
wrote  in  the  same  manner.  Probably  both  adopted 
the  method  of  writing  i/diance  &ic.  from  Dr.  Fran- 
cis' Demosthenes, — a  work,  which,  I  doubt  not,  Ju- 
nius diligently  studied,  and  from  which  he  trans- 
planted many  words  and  phrases  into  his  own 
writings. 

How  could  Mr.  Francis  say,  in  the  midst  of  his 
labors  at  the  war-office,  as  Junius  said  August  15, 
1771, — "  Is  there  no  merit  in  dedicating  my  life  to 
the  information  of  my  fellow  subjects  ? — What  pub- 
lic question  have  I  declined  ? — What  villain  have  1 
spared  ? — Is  there  no  labor  in  the  composition  of 
these  letters  ?  Mr.  Home,  I  fear,  is  partial  to  me  ; 
and  measures  the  facility  of  my  writings  by  tiie 
fluency  of  his  own." 
2* 


/ 


18  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

I  am  therefore  satisfied,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  Sir 
Philip  was  not  the  author  of  Junius.     Yet  I  am  not 
certain,  that  he   was  not  a  friend  of  lord  Sackville, 
joatronized  by  him,  and   employed   by  him  as  his 
agent  in   his  secret  correspondence.     Junius  says, 
January  18,  1772, — ^^  The  gentleman,  who  transacts 
the  conveyancing  part  of  our   correspondence,  tells 
me    there  was  much   difficulty  last   night."     This 
gentleman,  who  was  once  observed,  was  tall,  as  were 
both  Sackville   and   Sir  Philip  ;  but   the   danger  of 
performing  his   own   errand   must  to  lord   Sackville 
have    been    extreme.      Therefore    he    might   have 
employed    a  confidential  agent,  and    that    agent,  1 
believe,  was   Sir  Philip;  especially  as  the  letters  of 
Junius  exhibit  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  affairs 
of  the  war  office,  which   could   have  been  obtained 
only  from  one  of  the  clerks  of  the  office.     It  was  in 
1763,  that  Sir  Philip  was  appointed  to  a  considerable 
post  in  the  war  office  by  the  secretary.     Lord  Bar- 
rington  compelled  him  to   resign  in  March   1772. 
Junius,  under  the  signature  of  Veteran,  immediately 
published  a  letter  on  the   subject,   manifesting  his 
friendship  to   Mr.    Francis,   and  violently   assailing 
lord  Barrington. 

In  the  same  month  Junius  wrote  to  his  printer, 
Woodfall,  that  his  labors  were  at  an  end  : — "  The 
difficulty  of  corresponding  arises  from  situation  and 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  19 

necessity,  to  which  we  must  submit." — In  May  he 
requested  a  copy  of  the  letters,  bound.  Junius 
wrote  no  more  till  January  1773.  If  Francis  was 
his  sole  agent,  this  silence  can  be  explained,  be- 
cause, it  is  known,  that  he  was  absent  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  year  1772,  travelling  on  the  con- 
tinent. About  the  time  of  his  return  Woodfall 
received  a  private  letter  from  Junius.  Signals  had 
been  thrown  out  for  some  time  in  the  newspaper ; 
but  till  then  Junius  could  not  write  : — "  I  have  had 
good  reason  for  not  complying  with  them."  At 
this  time  Junius  was  able  to  receive  the  books  from 
Woodfall,  which  for  more  than  half  a  year  he  was 
not  able  to  receive.  It  is  then  very  supposable, 
that  Mr.  Francis  was  the  "  gentleman "  employ- 
ed by  lork  Sackville  in  the  ''  conveyancing  depart- 
ment." He  might  have  received  such  obligations, 
as  would  bind  him  to  a  silence,  which,  if  he  was 
entrusted  with  the  secret,  he  sacredly  preserved. 
If  Mr.  Francis  did  not  assist  Junius,  Mr.  D'Oyley,  a 
clerk,  who  was  dismissed  about  the  same  time,  and 
who  became  afterwards  private  secretary  of  Sack- 
ville, might  have  furnished  the  information,  with 
which  Junius  was  supplied,  and  have  been  the  con- 
veyancer of  the  letters. 


CHAPTER  n. 

Memoir  of  Sackville. 

That  lord  George  Sackville  was  the  author  of 
the  letters  of  Junius  is  in  my  opinion  completely 
established  by  such  a  combination  of  circumstances, 
as  have  almost  the  force  of  demonstration.  These 
circumstances  it  will  be  my  business  to  arrange. 

It  may  be  convenient,  first,  to  advert  to  the  history 
of  his  life.  He  was  the  third  son  of  the  first  Duke  of 
Dorset,  and  was  born  June  26,  1716.  He  was 
sent  to  Westminster  school.  In  1730,  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  he  accompanied  his  father  to  Ireland, 
and  was  educated  at  Trinity  college,  Dubhn,  where 
he  had  a  high  reputation  for  his  literary  attainments. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  obtained  a  commission 
in  the  army.  In  1738  he  accompanied  his  father  to 
Paris,  where  he  acquired  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  French  language.  In  1740  he  was  heutenant 
colonel.  In  1742  he  went  with  George  II.  to 
Hanover.  He  distinguished  himself  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Dettingen  in  1743,  and  at  that  of  Fontenoy 
in  1744,  in  which  he  received  a  bullet  in  his  breast. 
He  was  at  the  battle  of  Culloden  in  Scotland  in 


\ 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


21 


1746.  He  afterwards  served  on  the  continent.  In 
1749  he  was  a  member  of  parliament.  He  was- 
secretary  to  his  father  in  Ireland  in  1751.  In  Sep- 
tember 1754  he  married  Miss  Diana  Sambrook  of 
Dover  street,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  Charles 
and  George,  and  three  daughters.  In  1755  he  was 
appointed  major  general,  and  in  1758  heutenant 
general.  August  1,  1759,  was  fought  the  battle  of 
Minden,  at  which  he  was  accused  of  disobeying 
the  orders  of  prince  Ferdinand.  He  was  degraded 
from  office  by  a  court  martial,  and  abused  by  the 
king. 

Before  his  trial  came  on,  many  pamphlets  were 
published  on  the  two  sides  of  the  question.  One  of 
them,  entitled  '  A  Letter  to  a  late  noble  commander 
of  the  British  forces  in  Germany,'  printed  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  also  at  London  for  R.  Griffiths,  1759, 
pages  74,  must  have  had  great  influence  in  preju- 
dicing the  public  against  him,  as  it  is  written  with 
great  ability  and  elegance.  It  may  well  bear  a 
comparison  with  the  most  polished  and  eloquent 
letters  of  Junius,  ten  years  afterwards.  The  writer 
says  : — "  The  command  of  those  brave  bands 
devolved  upon  your  lordship.  Had  the  public 
choice  directed  the  appointment,  perhaps  no  one 
could  have  been  found  more  likely  to  discharge  the 
important  duty  with  honor,  skill,  and  fidelity.    De- 


22  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

scended  from  one  of  the  noblest  stocks  in  the  king- 
dom, one  eminently  distinguished  for  loyalty,  and 
yourself  honored  with  the  confidence  of  your  sove- 
reign,— who  w^ould  suspect  you  of  disaffection  ^ 
Having  been  tried  in  action,  and  your  firmness  ex- 
tolled,— who  could  doubt  your  courage  ?  of  which 
you  are  said  to  bear  honorable  marks  where  it  is  a 
soldier's  pride  to  show  them — in  your  breast.  From 
the  proofs  you  had  given  of  your  abilities  here,  and 
in  a  neighboring  kingdom  more  especially,  who 
could  question  your  capacity  ? — Noble  from  your 
birth,  great  in  your  endowments,  every  thing  great 
and  noble  was  expected  from  your  conduct. 

"  To  your  country's  detriment,  and  your  own 
dishonor,  the  expectations  of  the  public  are  disap- 
pointed. We  looked  for  a  commander,  and  we  find 
a  commentator.  We  depended  upon  an  active 
warrior,  and  we  meet  with  an  idle  disputant ;  one, 
who  in  the  field  of  battle  debates  upon  orders  with 
all  the  phlegm  of  an  academic,  when  he  ought  to 
execute  them  with  all  the  vigor  and  intrepidity  of  an 
hero." 

Speaking  of  Sackville's  aged  father,  the  WTiter 
says — "  Though  we  lament  his  feelings,  we  admire 
his  fortitude.  Moved  with  the  affection  of  a  tender 
parent,  he  adheres  to  justice  with  a  Roman  vigor, 
and  nobly  scorns  to  interpose  between  an  offending 
son  and  injured  country." 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  23 

The  writer  of  this  masterly  letter  is  unknown.  I 
doubt  not  that  by  the  study  of  it  Sackville  improved 
his  style,  however  little  it  may  have  mended  his 
temper. 

The  court  for  the  trial  of  lord  Sackville  consisted 
of  Sir  Charles  Howard,  president,  lieutenant  gene- 
ral Campbell,  lords  Delaware,  Cholmondely,  Stuart, 
earls  of  Panmure,  Ancram,  Harrington,  Abercrom- 
bie,  Albemarle,  major  generals  Leighton  and  Carr, 
earls  of  Effingham  and  Belford,  lords  Robert 
Manners  and  Robert  Bertie,  and  Julius  Caesar  : 
Charles  Gould,  judge  advocate.  Witnesses  against 
him  were  prince  Ferdinand's  Hessian  aid  de  camp, 
colonel  Fitzroy,  colonel  Sloper,  and  lord  Granby; 
in  his  favor,  his  aid  captain  Smith,  colonel  Hotham, 
captain  G.  Williams,  captain  Macbean.  At  the 
close  of  his  defence  Sackville  said,  that  ''  those, 
who  had  sworn  falsely,  must  feel  the  ill  effects  in 
their  own  breasts  :  that  he  was  always  ready  to  obey 
orders  and  discharge  his  duty  :  and  with  respect  to 
the  present  charge,  he  said,  till  the  court  has  said 
I  am  guilty,  I  stand  here  with  a  conscience  inno- 
cent, asserting  that  innocence,  which  bears  testimo- 
ny for  me."  The  sentence  of  the  court,  March  or 
April  1760,  was  as  follows — "  The  court,  upon  due 
consideration  of  the  whole  matter  before  them,  is  of 
opinion,  that  lord  George  Sackville  is  guilty  of  hav- 


24  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

ing  disobeyed  the  orders  of  prince  Ferdinand  of 
Brunswick,  whom  he  was  by  his  commission  and 
instructions  directed  to  obey,  as  commander  in  chief 
according  to  the  rules  of  war  :  and  it  is  the  farther 
opinion  of  this  court,  that  the  said  lord  George  Sack- 
ville  is,  and  he  is  hereby  adjudged,  unfit  to  serve  his 
Majesty  in  any  military  capacity  whatever." 

This  sentence  w^as  confirmed  in  orders  April 
23,  1760,  as  follows: — "It  is  his  Majesty's  plea- 
sure, that  the  above  sentence  be  given  out  in  public 
orders,  that  officers  being  convinced,  that  neither 
high  birth,  nor  great  employments  can  shelter 
offences  of  such  a  nature  ;  and  that  seeing  they  are 
subject  to  censures,  much  worse  than  death,  to  a 
man,  who  has  any  sense  of  honor,  they  may  avoid 
the  fatal  consequences,  arising  from  disobedience  of 
orders."  On  the  25th  April  his  Majesty  ordered 
the  name  of  lord  Sackville  to  be  struck  out  of  the 
list  of  privy  counsellors.  May  2d,  John,  marquis  of 
Granby,  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  privy  coun- 
cil. 

The  most  important  witnesses  were  the  marquis  of 
Granby,  colonel  Fitzroy,  brother  to  the  duke  of 
Grafton,  and  colonal  William  Augustus  Pitt.  These 
families  were  assailed  by  Junius. 

The  defence  of  Sackville  was  this,  that  contra- 
dictory orders  were  brought  to  him  by  the  two  aids 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


25 


of  prince  Ferdinand,  and  that  in  this  dilen:iina  he 
immediately  repaired  to  the  prince  himself  in  order 
to  ascertain  which  of  the  orders  he  was  to  obey. 

He  was  in  parliament  from  1760  till  he  was  call- 
ed to  the  House  of  Lords  in  1782  ;  from  1768  he 
represented  the  borough  of  East  Grinstead,  which 
he  purchased.  From  1760  to  1765  he  made  only 
one  speech.  In  1765  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Privy  Council  and  appointed  one  of  the  vice-treasur- 
ers of  Ireland.  In  1769  he  took  the  name  of  Ger- 
main in  consequence  of  the  will  of  lady  Betty 
Germain,  who  bequeathed  to  him  £20,000  in  per- 
sonal property,  besides  valuable  estates  at  Drayton 
in  Northamptonshire,  although  she  was  not  related 
to  him. 

Early  in  the  session  of  1770  he  became  distin- 
guished. "  His  talents  as  a  declaimer,  his  elo- 
quence as  an  orator,  his  sound  reasoning  and  forcible 
language  soon  gained  him  the  applause  of  the 
house,  although  a  violent  oppositionist  to  the  meas- 
ures of  ministers." 

January   22,    1770,    he    supported    for    speaker 

Thomas  Townsend,   afterwards    lord    Sydney,   his 

most  intimate   friend,  against   Sir  Fletcher  Norton, 

the  ministerial    candidate,  who    was  elected  : — "  I 

beg  leave  to  second  the  noble  lord's  motion.    Mr. 

Townsend,   while   the   other   gentleman   has   been 

3 


26  JUNIUS   UNMASKED. 

practising  in  the  courts  below,  has  been  learning 
business  of  a  superior  kind  ;  the  business  of  the 
nation  and  this  house. — Forms  of  practice  are 
things  very  different  from  rules  of  right. — A  man 
may  be  well  acquainted  with  the  face  of  a  country, 
and  its  divisions,  as  laid  down  in  a  map,  without 
knowing  a  step  of  the  road  to  a  single  market 
town ;  and  he,  that  has  been  used  to  travel  the 
turnpike  road,  on  journeys  of  business,  may  be 
less  acquainted  with  the  shorter  cuts  through  parks, 
forests,  and  privileged  places,  than  those,  whose 
situations  and  connexions  have  admitted  them  to 
the  chase,  which  is  regulated  by  rules  very  different 
from  paying  toll  at  a  turnpike,  or  bills  at  an  inn. 
Upon  the  whole,  I  should  think  a  minute  acquaint- 
ance with  the  practice  of  courts  of  law  rather  a 
disqualification  for   the  chair  in   this  house." 

On  a  motion,  December  6,  1770,  in  the  House 
of  Commons  to  inquire  into  the  administration 
of  criminal  justice,  Sackville  made  an  eloquent 
speecli.  He  said  — "  Consider,  gentlemen,  what 
will  be  tlie  consequence  of  refusing  this  demand, 
this  debt,  which  you  owe  to  the  anxious  expectation 
of  the  public.  The  people,  seeing  his  [lord  Mans- 
field's] avowed  defenders  so  loth  to  bring  him  forth 
on  the  public  stage,  and  to  make  him  plead  his 
cause  before   their   tribunal,  will  naturally  conclude. 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  27 

that  he  could  not  bear  the  light,  because  his  deeds 
were  evil ;  and  that,  therefore,  you  judged  it  advis- 
able to  screen  him  behind  the  curtain  of  a  majority. 
Though  his  conduct  was  never  questioned  in  Parlia- 
ment, mark  how  he  is  every  day,  and  every  hour, 
pointed  out  in  print  and  conversation,  as  a  perverter 
of  the  law,  and  an  enemy  of  the  constitution.  No 
epithet  is  too  bad  for  him.  Now  he  is  the  subtile 
Scroggs,  now,  the  arbitrary  Jeffries.  All  the  re- 
cords of  our  courts  of  law  and  all  the  monuments 
of  our  lawyers  are  ransacked,  in  order  to  find  suffi- 
ciently odious  names,  by  which  he  may  be  christen- 
ed. The  hbellous  and  virulent  spirit  of  the  times 
has  overleaped  all  the  barriers  of  law,  order,  and 
decorum.  The  judges  are  no  longer  revered,  and 
the  laws  have  lost  all  their  salutary  terrors.  Juries 
will  not  convict  petty  delinquents,  when,  they  sus- 
pect, grand  criminals  go  unpunished.  Hence  libels 
and  lampoons,  audacious  beyond  the  example  of  alt 
other  times ;  libels,  in  comparison  of  which  the 
North  Briton,  once  deemed  the  ne  plus  ultra  of 
sedition,  is  perfect  innocence  and  simplicity.  The 
sacred  number,  forty-five,  form.erly  the  idol  of  the 
multitude,  is  eclipsed  by  the  superior  venom  of 
every  day's  defamation :  all  its  magical  and  taHs- 
manic  powers  are  lost  and  absorbed  in  the  gen- 
eral   deluge    of    scandal,    which    pours    from    the 


28  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

press.  When  matters  are  thus  circumstanced, 
when  the  judges  in  general,  and  hord  Mansfield  in 
'particular,  are  there  hung  out  to  public  scorn 
and  detestation,  now  that  libellers  receive  no  coun- 
tenance from  men  high  in  power,  and  in  the  public 
esteem ;  what  will  be  the  consequence,  when  it  is 
publicly  known,  that  they  have  been  arraigned,  and 
that  their  friends  quashed  the  inquiry,  which  it  was 
proposed  to  make  upon  their  conduct  ?  The  con- 
sequence is  more  easily  conceived  than  expressed. 
I  foresee,  that  the  imps  of  the  press,  the  sons  of 
ink,  and  the  printers'  devils  will  be  all  in  motion, 
and  they  w^ill  spare  you  as  little  as  they  will  the 
judges. 

"  Like  the  two  thieves  in  the  Gospel,  both  will  be 
hung  up  and  gibbetted,  with  the  law  crucified  be- 
tween you,  for  the  entertainment  of  coffee-house 
politicians,  greasy  carmen,  porters,  and  barbers  in 
tippling  houses  and  night  cellars.  I  cannot  help 
thinking,  that  it  is  the  wish  of  lord  Mansfield  him- 
self to  have  his  conduct  examined,  nay,  I  collect 
as  much  from  the  language  of  a  gentleman,  who 
may  be  supposed  to  know  his  sentiments.  What 
foundation  then  is  there  for  obstructing  the  inquiry  ? 
None  at  all.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  see  my  no- 
ble friend  discovering  such  symptoms  of  conscious 
innocence.     His  ideas  perfectly  co-incide  with  my 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  29 

own.  I  would  never  oppose  the  minutest  scrutiny 
into  my  behavior.  However  much  condemned  by 
the  envy  or  malice  of  enemies,  I  would  at  least 
show,  that  I  stood  acquitted  in  my  own  mind.  Qui 
fugit  judicium,  ipso  teste,  reus  est,'''' 

Junius  said  December  12,  in  reference  to  this 
speech, — "  Let  it  be  known  to  posterity,  that  when 
lord  Mansfield  was  attacked  with,  so  much  vehe- 
mence in  the  House  of  ConuiionSj  not  one  of  the 
ministry  said  a  word  in  his  defence." 

In  1773  he  concurred  with  the  ministry  in  regard 
to  the  East  India  affairs.  Early  in  this  year  the 
last  letter  of  Junius  to  Mr.  Woodfall  was  written. 

In  a  speech  on  American  affairs  March  28,  1774, 
he  pointed  out  the  measures  necessary  to  be  adopt- 
ed, and  was  publicly  thanked  for  his  suggestions  by 
lord  North,  who  said — "  they  were  worthy  so  great 
a  mind."  The  speech  chiefly  related  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  Massachusetts ;  the  following  are  ex- 
tracts from  it : — "  I  could  have  wished,  that  the 
noble  lord,  when  he  was  framing  this  scheme  of 
salvation,  would  have  at  least  considered,  that  there 
were  other  parts  of  the  internal  government,  neces- 
sary to  be  put  under  some  regulation.  I  mean 
particularly  the  internal  government  of  Massachu- 
setts   Bay.      I    wish    to    see    the    council   of    that 

country    on   the    same    footing    as    other    colonies. 

3* 


30  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

There  is  a  degree  of  absurdity  at  present  in  the 
election  of  the  council.  I  cannot,  Sir,  disagree  with 
the  noble  lord,  nor  can  I  think  he  will  do  a  better 
thing,  than  to  put  an  end  to  their  town  meetings. 
I  would  not  have  men  of  a  mercantile  cast  consider 
themselves  as  ministers  of  that  country.  I  would 
not  have  such  men  every  day  collecting  themselves 
together,  and  debating  about  political  matters.  I 
would  have  them  follow  their  occupations  as  mer- 
chants, and  not  consider  themselves  as  ministers. — 
You  have,  Sir,  no  government — no  governor  ;  the 
whole  are  the  proceedings  of  a  tumultuous  and 
riotous  rabble,  who  ought,  if  they  had  the  least  pru- 
dence, to  follow  their  mercantile  employments,  and 
not  trouble  themselves  with  politics  and  govern- 
ment, which  they  do  not  understand. 

"  We  are  told  by  some  gentlemen,  '  Oh  !  do  not 
break  the  charter  !  do  not  take  away  their  rights, 
that  are  granted  to  them  by  the  predecessors  of  the 
crov/n ! '  Whoever,  Sir,  wishes  to  preserve  such 
charters,  without  a  due  correction  and  regulation — 
whoever  wishes  for  such  subjects,  I  wish  them  no 
worse  than  to  govern  them.  Put  this  people.  Sir,  on 
a  free  footing  of  government ;  do  not  let  us  be  ev- 
ery day  asserting  our  rights  by  words,  and  they  de- 
nying our  authority,  and  preventing  the  execution 
of  our  laws,     Let  us  persevere  in  refuiing  that  gov-' 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  31 

ernment,  which  cannot  support  itself,  and  proceed 
in  the  manner  we  have  begun,  and  I  make  no  doubt, 
but  by  a  manly  and  steady  perseverance  things  may 
be  restored  from  a  state  of  anarchy  and  confusion 
to  peace,  quietude,  and  a  due  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  this  country." 

As  Sackville  thus  supported  the  measures  of  the 
administration  in  regard  to  America,  and  as  he  had 
talents  and  firmness,  lord  North  solicited  his  aid  in 
the  ministry,  and  he  was  appointed  Secretary  for 
the  American  department  September  7,  1775,  in 
the  place  of  lord  Dartmouth  removed.  Sackville 
soon  appointed  Richard  Cumberland  the  under 
secretary  instead  of  Mr.  Pownall,  and  Mr.  D'Oyley 
his  confidential  secretary. 

That  to  lord  Sackville  must  be  ascribed,  in  the 
American  revolutionary  war,  the  employment  of 
the  Indians,  reckless  of  their  barbarous  mode  of 
warfare,  there  is  conclusive  evidence.  Mr.  Bisset, 
in  his  History  of  the  Reign  of  king  George  III,  says, 
— "  The  plan  of  the  expedition  through  the  wilds 
of  America  was  concerted  in  London  between  gen- 
eral Burgoyne  and  lord  George  Germain.  It  was 
agreed,  that  besides  regular  troops,  Indian  savages 
should  be  employed  by  the  British  commander.  "  * — 

*  Bisset,  ii,  324. 


32  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

"  The  force  required  by  Burgoyne,  was  8000  reg- 
ulars, 2000  Canadians,  and  1000   Indians." 

After  the  defeat  of  Burgoyne  Mr.  Burke  in  1778 
moved  an  inquiry  concerning  the  employment  of 
the  Indians.  In  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons 
December  0,  1779,  colonel  Barre  said, — "  He  had 
information,  that  colonel  Butler  had  been  defeated 
and  taken,  and  the  remains  of  his  army  and  the 
vanquished  Indians  had  fled  for  shelter  into  Niaga- 
ra ;  that  the  Indian  towns  had  been  burnt,  and 
probably,  that  the  consequence  would  be,  the  total 
extirpation  of  the  Indians  in  that  part  of  America. 
[Here  lord  George  Germain 'shook  his  head.] 
The  noble  lord  might  shake  his  head,  if  he  pleas- 
ed, but  the  fact  was,  as  he  had  stated  it;  and  now 
that  he  was  up,  he  would  tell  the  noble  lord  another 
particular,  which  was,  that  the  horrid  and  cruel  wai', 
urged  by  colonel  Butler,  was  planned  at  a  house  in 
Pall  Mall  [meaning  his  lordship's],  at  the  instigation 
of  a  certain  agent ;  and  what  was  more  extraordi- 
nary, to  that  instant  had  never  been  regularly  com- 
municated to  the  cabinet  council,  or,  if  it  had,  not 
till  long  after  order  had  been  given  to  carry  it  into 
execution.  [Lord  George  Germain  shook  his  head 
again.]  The  noble  lord  was  at  liberty  to  give  what 
tokens  of  dissent  he  thought  proper  ;  but  he  was 
ready  to  make  his  assertions  good.     He  knew  colo- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  33 

nel  Butler,  when  he  served  in  America ;  he  was  a 
good  officer  and  a  worthy  man.  He  did  not  know, 
how  he  had  been  prevailed  upon  to  undertake  so 
infamous  a  service,  as  that  of  carrying  fire  and 
sword  into  the  settlements  of  his  fellow  subjects, 
and  permitting  those  horrid  acts,  which  are  the  con- 
comitants of  this  species  of  war,  when  savages  are 
gratified  with  their  cruel  pastimes  and  their  thirst  of 
human  blood." 

To  this  Germain  made  no  answer.  It  is  not  easy 
to  reconcile  bis  silence  with  his  innocence.  It  may 
be  just  therefore  to  associate  the  name  of  Sackville 
and  the  fame  of  Junius  with  the  horrors  of  Wyoming. 
As  Sackville  planned  the  Indian  incursions  on 
our  frontier  settlements,  we  may  suffer  William  Pitt, 
the  younger,  to  crown  him  with  merited  laurels  ; — 
"  He  was  persuaded  and  would  affirm,  that  it  was  an 
accursed,  wicked,  barbarous,  cruel,  unnatural,  un- 
just, and  diabolical  war.  It  was  conceived  in  injus- 
tice ;  it  was  nurtured  and  brought  forth  in  folly ; 
its  footsteps  w^ere  marked  with  blood,  slaughter, 
persecution,  and  devastation  ;  in  truth,  every  thing, 
which  went  to  constitute  moral  depravity  and  human 
turpitude,  were  to  be  found  in  it."  * 

■^  Pitt's  Speech,  1781. — Horace  Walpole,  in  his  Correspon- 
dence, says,  January   15,   1775,   he  does   not  wish — 'to 


34  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

As  minister,  Sackville  was  immoveable  in  his  pur- 
pose of  prosecuting  the  American  war  to  the  last 
extremity  in  accordance  with  the  views  of  his  sove- 
reign, and  determined  never  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  the  colonies.  In  fact  his  continu- 
ance in  office  and  that  of  North  depended  on  the 
result  of  the  war.  On  Sunday  November  25, 
1781,  he  received  intelligence  of  the  surrender  of 
the  British  forces  at  York  Town.  He  immediately 
rode  to  lord  North's,  who  received  the  intelligence 
'  as  he  would  have  taken  a  ball  in  his  breast,'  for  he 
paced  his  apartment,  exclaiming  wildly  many  times, 
and  profanely,  not  devoutly, — '  Oh  ! — it  is  all  over  ! ' 
We  may  well  smile  at  this  grief  of  the  prime  minis- 
ter on  the  loss  of  his  office  ;  for  the  event,  which 
occasioned  his  agony,  gave  independence  to  Amer- 
ica. 

Early  in  February  1782  lord  George  Germain  re- 
signed his  office,  on  which  occasion  the  king,'  in 
reward  of  his  faithful  services,  raised  him  to  the 
dignity  of  the  peerage,  and  created  him  '  Viscount 
Sackville  and  Baron  Bolebrook.'  In  consequence 
of  this  honor  lord  Osborne,  the  Marquis  of  Car- 
marthen, made  a  motion   in  the  House  of  Lords  to 

breathe  out  fire  and  sword  against  the  Americans,  like 
that  second  duke  of  Alva — the  inflexible  lord  G . . . .  G . . . . 
[George  Germain.] ' 


JUNIUS   UNMASKED.  35 

prevent  Sackville  from  taking  his  seat,  on  account 
of  the  censure  of  the  court  martial,  deeming  his 
admission  a  disgrace  to  the  house.  The  motion 
was  supported  by  the  earl  of  Sherburne,  the  duke 
of  Grafton,  the  earl  of  Abingdon,  and  the  duke  of 
of  Richmond,  but  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  75  to  28. 

On  this  occasion  the  earl  of  Abingdon  said — 
"  The  person,  who  was  the  subject  of  this  m.otion, 
had  been  the  greatest  criminal  this  cou^  try  ever 
knew.  He  had  been  the  author  of  all  the  calami- 
ties of  the  war,  and  all  the  distresses,  which  Great 
Britain  now  groaned  under.  It  was  to  his  blood- 
thirstiness,  his  weakness,  his  wickedness,  and  his 
mismanagement,  that  the  war  had  been  prosecuted 
at  so  large  a  waste  of  blood  and  treasure,  and  with 
such  a  miserable  repetition  of  ill  successes.  He 
ought  not  therefore  to  be  suffered  to  come  into  that 
house  and  to  contaminate  the  peerage." 

A  second  motion  of  the  marquis  of  Carmarthen 
to  censure  the  ministers,  who  advised  his  Majesty 
to  bestov/  the  peerage  on  Sackville,  was  supported 
by  the  duke  of  Grafton,  his  brother,  lord  South- 
ampton (formerly  colonel  Fitzroy),  the  earl  of 
Abingdon,  the  earl  of  Derby,  and  the  duke  of  Rich- 
mond ;  but  was  lost  by  a  great  majority.  Nearly 
all  who  were  in  the  minority,  had  been  attacked  by 
Junius. 


36  JUNIUS   UNMASKED. 

The  speech  of   Sackville  was  powerful,  and,  as 
was  admitted  by  his  enemies,  a  speech  as  dignified, 
as  was   ever  made   whhin  the  walls  of  the  house. 
The  following  are   extracts  from  it : — ''  To  bestow 
honors  was  the  peculiar,  the  indisputable,  the  admit- 
ted prerogative   of  the   crown,  when  the  person,  on 
whom  those  honors  were  bestowed,  was  competent 
to  receive   them.    He  held  himself  to  be  in  every 
way  competent  to  receive  the  honors,  he  had  been 
so  fortunate   as  to  experience   at  the  hands  of  his 
royal  master,  and  he  was  ready  to  rest  the  whole  of 
the  question  on  his  being  able  to  prove  in  any  man- 
ner, in  any  place,  and  on  any  occasion  whatever, 
that  he  was  the  person  so  competent.     The  motion 
stated   the    sentence  of   the  court   martial,   as  the 
ground  of    objection  to  his  being   made   a   peer  : 
he  was  ready  to  meet  the  argument  on  that  point, 
and  to   contend,  that  the  sentence  amounted  to  no 
disqualification  whatever.     The  court  martial,  which 
pronounced   that   sentence,  had  sat  two  and  twenty 
years  ago,  and   he  conceived   those    of  their   lord- 
ships, and  the  public  in  general,  who  were  at  all  ac- 
quainted with  the  peculiarly  hard   and  unfair  cir- 
cumstances, that  had  attended  his  being  tried  at  all, 
had  long   been  accustomed  to  see  the  whole  of  that 
business  in  its  true  point  of  view.     What  had  been 
the  temper  of  those  times  ?      Faction  and  clamor 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  37 

predominated  :  they  both  ran   against  him,  and  he 
Iiad  been  made  the  victim  of  the  most  unexampled 
persecution,   that   ever   a   British  officer   had   been 
pursued  with.     In  the  first  place,  he  had  been  con- 
demned unheard,  punished  before   trial.     Stripped 
of    all    his   mihtary   honors    and    emoluments   upon 
mere   rumor,  upon  the  malicious  suggestions  of  his 
enemies,  without  their  having  been  called  upon  to 
exhibit  the  smallest  proof  of  their  loose   asserdon 
and  acrimonious  invective  :  he  stood  pointed  out  to 
the  world,  as  a  man  easy  to  be  run  down  by  clamor, 
and  to   fall   a  sacrifice   to  faction.      Thus   cruelly 
circumstanced,  thus   made  to  suffer    in   a    manner 
equally  unparalleled  and  unjust ;  what  had  been  his 
conduct?     Had   he  fled,  like  a  guilty  man,  and   hid 
himself  from  the  world  ?     IVIany  of  their  lordships 
well  knew,  that  he  had  acted  in  a  manner  directly 
opposite.     He  had  challenged   his  accusers  to  come 
forward  ;  he  had   provoked  enquiry ;  he  had  insist- 
ed upon  a  trial. — What  could  their  lordships  ima- 
gine induced  him  to  persevere  in  this  step   with  so 
much  firmness,  but  a  consciousness  of  his  innocence  ? 
It  was  that  and   that  alone,  which  bore  him  up  un- 
der the  cruel  difficulties  he  had   to  encounter,   and 
that  made  him  submit  patiently  to  the  consequence." 
— "  In  1765  he  had  been  called  to  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil, and  brought  into  office.      Previous  to  his  ac- 

4 


fe 


38  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

cepting  the  offers,  that  were  then  made  to  him,  of 
taking  a  part  in  the  administration  of  that  day,  it 
had  been  agreed,  that  he  should  be  first  called  to 
the  Council-board,  which  he  had  ever  considered 
as  a  virtual  repeal  of  the  sentence  of  the  court- 
martial.  He  had  continued  a  member  of  the  Privy 
Council  for  ten  years  without  hearing  a  word  of  the 
court-martial,  or  its  being  thought  by  any  means  a 
disqualification.  Several  years  ago  his  Majesty  had 
honored  him  so  far,  as  to  appoint  him  to  the  high 
office  of  Secretary  of  State,  an  office,  which  he 
had  filled  ever  since,  without  hearing  a  word  of  the 
sentence.  Let  their  lordships  then  consider  the 
hardship  of  that  sentence  being  urged  against  him, 
as  a  disqualification  for  a  seat  in  that  house,  which 
had  been  deemed  no  disqualification  whatever  of 
his  being  a  privy  counsellor  and  a  secretary  of 
state ;  two  situations  surely  of  more  dignity  and  of 
more  importance,  considering  the  form  of  the  Brit- 
ish constitution,  than  even  a  peerage,  high  and  dig- 
nified as  the  honor  undoubtedly  was  :  nor  did  the 
matter  of  hardship  merely  consist  in  bringing  the 
sentence  forward  now,  but  the  making  it  a  ground 
of  censure.  Would  their  lordships  sanction,  con- 
firm, and  aggravate  a  sentence,  pronounced  by  a 
court-military,  without  having  the  whole  of  the  case 
before  them  ?    That  would  be  to  make  the  military 


JUNIUS  unmasked: 


39 


law,  sufficiently  severe  as  it  confessedly  was  at 
present,  ten  times  more  severe,  by  annexing  to  its 
judgment  the  censure  of  a  civil  court  of  judi- 
cature. 

"  From  the  time  he  was  called  to  the  Privy 
Council  to  the  present  moment,  and  especially  since 
he  had  accepted  of  that  high  office,  he  had  en- 
deavored to  serve  his  king  and  country  to  the  best 
of  his  judgment.  He  would  not  pretend  to  cope 
with  any  man  in  respect  to  abilities  :  there  were 
many,  he  was  persuaded,  more  able  than  himself; 
but  there  were  points,  in  which  he  would  not  yield 
to  all,  who  had  before  been  in  the  service  of  the 
crown.  He  defied  any  man  to  prove,  that  the 
public  ever  had  a  servant,  who  had  showed  more 
unremitting  assiduity,  more  close  attention  to  the 
duties  of  his  situation,  or  more  zeal  for  promoting 
the  interests  of  the  country,  than  he  had  done, 
from  the  moment  of  his  accepting  the  high  office, 
he  had  lately  filled  till  his  resignation  of  it. 

"  With  regard  to  the  court-martial,  it  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  procure  a  revision  of  the  pro- 
ceeding :  it  happened  two  and  twenty  years  since, 
and  every  member,  who  sat  upon  it,  excepting  two 
very  respectable  characters,  lord  Robert  Manners 
and  lord  Bertie,  had  been  dead  and  buried  long 
ago  :  any  attempt  to  investigate  the  motives,  which 


40  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

actuated  the  several  members  of  the  court,  was  now 
impracticable  ;  but  after  what  he  had  said,  he 
flattered  himself,  their  lordships,  in  general,  would 
agree  with  him,  that  he  was  a  person  competent  to 
receive  the  honors  his  Majesty  had  been  graciously 
pleased  to  bestow  upon  him ; — and  that  it  was 
neither  expedient,  necessary,  nor  becoming  for  that 
house  to  fly  in  the  face  of  the  indisputable  prerog- 
ative of  the  crown,  merely  because  the  crown 
thought  proper  to  bestow  a  reward  on  an  old 
servant." 

It  was  with  difficulty  Sackville  was  restrained 
from  challenging  the  marquis  of  Carmarthen.  Cum- 
berland says — "  The  well  known  circumstances, 
that  occurred  upon  the  event  of  his  elevation  to  the 
peerage,  made  a  deep  and  painful  impression  on  his 
feeling  mind ;  and  if  his  seeming  patience  under 
the  infliction  of  it  should  appear  to  merit,  in  a 
moral  sense,  the  name  of  virtue,  that  he  had  no 
title  to  be  credited  for,  inasmuch  as  it  was  entirely 
owing  to  the  influence  of  some,  who  overruled  his 
propensities,  and  made  themselves  responsible  for 
his  honor,  that  he  did  not  betake  himself  to  the 
same  abrupt,  unwarrantable  mode  of  dismissing  this 
insult,  as  he  had  resorted  to  in  a  former  instance." 

He  yielded  to  the  remonstrances  of  some  of  his 
nearest  friends,  particularly  of  lord  Amherst.    Cum^ 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


41 


berland  adds,  with  a  mixture  of  absurdity  and  truth, 
— "  Though  possessing  one  of  the  best  and  kindest 
hearts^  that  ever  beat  within  a  human  breast,  he  was 
with  difficulty  diverted  from  resorting  a  second  time 
to  that  desperate  remedy,  which  modern  empirics 
have  prescribed  for  wounds  of  a  peculiar  sort,  often- 
times imaginary  and  always  to  be  cured  by  pa- 
tience." 

During  the  remainder  of  his  davs  Sackville  lived 
at  Drayton  in  Northamptonshire,  or  at  Bolebrook 
near  Tunbridge  Wells,  but  principally  at  his  beauti- 
ful mansion,  Stoneland  Park,  now  Buckhurst  Park, 
near  the  parish  of  Withyham  in  Sussex.  Though 
suffering  much  by  a  painful  malady,  the  stone,  he 
was  very  punctual  in  all  his  domestic  arrangements. 
According  to  Mr.  Cumberland — "  As  sure  as  the 
hand  of  the  clock  pointed  to  the  half  hour  after  nine, 
did  the  good  lord  of  the  castle  step  into  his  break- 
fast room,  accoutred  at  all  points,  according  to  his 
own  invariable  costume,  with  a  complacent  coun- 
tenance, that  prefaced  his  good  morning  to  each 
person  there  assembled. — He  allowed  an  hour  and 
an  half  for  breakfast,  and  regularly  at  11  took 
his  morning's  circuit  on  horseback  at  a  foot's-pace, 
for  his  infirmity  would  not  allow  of  a  strong  gesta- 
tion. He  never  rode  out  without  preparing  him- 
self with  a  store  of  sixpences  in  bis  waistcoat  pocket 

4* 


42  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

for  the  children  of  the  poor,  who  opened  gates  and 
drew  out  sliding  bars  for  him  in  his  passage  through 
the  enclosures." 

He  was  very  kind  to  the  poor  cottagers,  his  ten- 
ants, replacing  their  losses,  and  furnishing  relief  in 
sickness. 

"  To  his  religious  duties  this  good  man  was  not 
only  regularly  but  respectfully  attentive.  On  the 
Sunday  morning  he  appeared  in  gala,  as  if  he  were 
dressed  for  a  drawing-room  ;  he  marched  out  his 
whole  family  in  grand  cavalcade  to  his  parish 
church,  leaving  only  a  centinel  to  watch  the  fires  at 
home,  and  mount  guard  upon  the  spits.  His  de- 
portment in  the  house  of  prayer  was  exemplary, 
and  more  in  character  of  times  past  than  of  time 
present.  He  had  a  way  of  standing  up  in  sermon 
time,  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing  the  congregation 
and  awing  the  idlers  into  decorum,  that  never  failed 
to  remind  me  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  at  church. 
Sometimes,  when  he  has  been  struck  with  passages 
in  the  discourse,  which  he  wished  to  point  out  to  the 
audience  as  rules  for  moral  piactice  worthy  to  be 
noticed,  he  would  mark  his  approbation  of  them 
with  such  cheering  nods  and  signals  of  assent  to  the 
preacher,  as  were  often  more  than  my  muscles  could 
withstand. — -In  his  zeal  to  encourage  a  very  young 
preacher,,  the  Rev.  Henry  EatofT,  I  heard  him  cry 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  4^ 

out,  to  the  overthrow  of  all  gravity,  in  the  middle  of 
the  sermon,  '  Well  done,  Harry  ! '  It  was  irresistible. 
Yet  he  had  an  unmoved  sincerity  of  manner  ;  and 
was  surprised,  that  any  thing  provoked  laughter." 

"He  had  nursed  up  with  no  small  care  and  cost, 
in  each  of  his  parish  churches,  a  corps  of  rustic 
psalm-singers,  to  whose  performances  he  paid  the 
greatest  attention,  rising  up,  and  with  his  eyes  di- 
rected to  the  singing-gallery,  marking  time,  which 
was  not  always  rigidly  adhered  to ;  and  once,  when 
his  ear,  which  was  very  correct,  had  been  tortured 
by  a  tone  most  glaringly  discordant,  he  set  his  mark 
upon  the  culprit  by  calling  out  to  him  by  name,  and 
loudly  saying,  '  Out  of  tune,  Tom  Baker  ! '  Now 
this  faulty  musician,  Tom  Baker,  happened  to  be  his 
lordship's  butcher ;  but  then,  in  order  to  set  names 
and  trades  upon  a  par,  Tom  Butcher  was  his  lord- 
ship's baker  ;  which,  I  observed  to  him,  was  much 
such  a  reconcilement  of  cross-partners,  as  my  illus- 
trious friend,  George  Faulkner,  hit  upon,  when  in 
his  Dublin  Journal  he  printed, — ^  Erratum  in  our 
last — For  His  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Dorset,  read, 
Her  grace  the  Duke  of  Dorset.* 

"  He  died  August  26,  1785,  at  Stoneland,  aged  69 
years.  It  was  not  long  after  he  had  made  an  able 
speech  on  the  Irish  question.  A  few  days  before 
his  death,  he  inquired  '^ if  lord  Mansfield  was  then  at 


44  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

the  Wells,'  and  solicited  an  interview.  Being  visit- 
ed by  Mansfield,  he,  as  a  dying  man,  very  solemnly 
asked  his  forgiveness.  A  becoming  and  satisfac- 
tory reply  was  made  ;  and  the  visiter  departed. 

"  As  I  knew  he  had  been  some  time  meditating 
upon  his  preparations  to  receive  the  sacrament,  and 
death  seemed  near  at  hand,  I  reminded  him  of  it ; 
he  declared  himself  ready  ;  in  one  instance  only,  he 
confessed,  it  cost  him  a  hard  struggle.  What  that 
instance  was,  he  needed  not  to  explain  to  me,  nor 
am  I  careful  to  explain  to  any.  I  trust,  according 
to  the  infirmity  of  man's  nature,  he  is  rather  to  be 
honored  for  having  finally  extinguished  his  resent- 
ment, than  condemned  for  having  fostered  it  too 
long.  A  Christian  saint  would  have  done  it  sooner; 
how  many  men  would  not  have  done  it  ever  ! 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Sackville  Bayle,  his  worthy  par- 
ish priest,  and  ever  faithful  friend,  administered  the 
solemn  ofiice  of  the  sacrament  to  him,  reading  at  his 
request  the  prayers  for  a  communicant  at  the  point 
of  death.  He  had  ordered  all  his  bed  curtains  to 
be  opened  and  the  sashes  thrown  up,  that  he  might 
have  air  and  space  to  assist  him  in  his  eflx3rts  ;  what 
they  were,  with  what  devotion  he  joined  in  those 
solemn  prayers,  that  warn  the  parting  spirit  to  dis- 
miss all  hopes,  that  centre  in  this  world,  that  rever- 
end friend  can  witness.     1  also  was  a  witness  and  a 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  45 

partaker :  none  else  was  present  at  that  holy  cere- 
mony." 

A  brass  plate  on  his  coffin  in  the  vault  of  the 
church  is  the  only  record  of  "  George  Viscount 
Sackville  and  Baron  Bolebrook."  No  monumental 
marble  is  entrusted  with  his  name  ;  yet,  if  it  shall  be 
proved,  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  letters  of 
Junius,  his  name  may  have  an  imperishable  honor 
in  the  memory  of  the  admirers  of  intellect  and 
genius,  and  an  imperishable  infamy  in  the  memory 
of  all,  who  detest  the  malignant  passions  and  the 
struggles  of  misguided  and  low  ambition. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Presumptive  Argument  to  show,  that  SacJcville  was 

Junius. 

1.  The  suspicion  of  being  the  author  of  Junius 
rested  at  the  tinae  more  on  lord  George  SacJcville, 
than  on  any  other  person. — It  has  already  been  sta- 
ted, that  on  the  denial  of  Burke,  Sir  William  Draper 
transferred  his  suspicions  entirely  to  Sackville.  Mr. 
Woodfall,  the  printer,  at  times  suspected  Sackville. 
Others  entertained  the  same  belief.  An  able  writer, 
under  the  signature  of  Titus,  in  defending  the  mar- 
quis of  Granby  against  Junius,  says  of  him — "  He 
knows  how  to  obey  :  he  knows,  that  a  good  soldier 
never  disputes  the  commands  of  his  superior.''^ — Also, 
— "  It  matters  not,  whether  the  malicious  dart  be 
pointed  from  the  closet  of  a  disgraced  soldier,"  &ic. 
"  You  know,  Junius,  that  he  feared  not  to  lead  on 
the  cavalry  at  Mind  en."  Here  are  obvious  intima- 
tions, that  the  writer  believed  lord  Sackville  to  be 
the  author  of  the  letters  of  Junius.  This  general 
suspicion  ought  to  be  considered  as  of  much  weight, 
inasmuch  as  many  grounds  for  the  belief  may  have 
existed  at  the  time,  which  are  now  lost,  and  as  con- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  47 

temporaries  were  the  best  judges  of  talents  and  mo- 
tives and  of  all  the  probabilities  of  the  case. 

2.  Lord  George  SacJcville  possessed  the  requisite 
talents   and  learning. — I   am   aware,  that   Richard 
Cumberland,   who   was  secretary  under  Sackville, 
has  expressed  his  belief,  that  his  lordship  was  defi- 
cient in  classical  attainments  and  was  incapable  of 
writing  the  letters  of  Junius.     But  of  his  quahfica- 
tions  others,  who  knew  his  lordship   at  an   earlier 
period,  were  more  competent  to  judge.     Educated 
at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  having  afterwards 
much  leisure,  no  one  can  imagine,  that  lord  Sack- 
ville could  not  easily  have  made  that  acquaintance, 
with  the  classical  waiters  of  antiquity,  which  Junius 
exhibits.     As  to  his  intellectual  powers  the  testimo- 
ny is  ample.     Lord  Orford,  speaking  of  Sackville 
in  1758,  says — he  was  "  now  rising  to  a  principal 
figure.     His  abilities  in  the  House  of  Commons  and 
his  interest  with  Pitt  gave  him  great  weight  in  gov- 
ernment."— He  said  also — "  Lord  G.  Sackville  was 
a  man  of  very  sound  parts,  of  distinguished  bravery, 
and  of  as  honorable  eloquence : " — and  speaking  of  a 
commission  of  inquiry,  in  which  Sackville  was  asso- 
ciated in  1757  with  the  duke  of  Marlborough  and 
general  Waldegrave,  he  remarks,  that  he  "  was  more 
than  a  balance  to  the  other  two  in  abilities." — Sir 
N.  Wraxall  says,  "Mr.   Pitt  styled  lord  George 


48  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

Germain  the  Agamemnon  of  the  day  ; " — also  in 
regard  to  his  speech  on  a  motion  relating  to  his  be- 
ing created  a  viscomit — "  His  enemies  confessed, 
that  never  was  a  more  able,  dignified,  or  manly  ap- 
peal made  within  the  walls  of  the  House  of  Peers, 
than  lord  Sackville  pronounced  on  that  occasion." 
A  writer  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  September 
1785,  speaks  of  him  as  "  a  man  of  extraordinary 
talent," — his  pen  is  said  to  be  "all-powerful;" — 
"  he  had  the  art  of  painting  in  words  to  a  very 
eminent  degree,  and  which  afforded  the  finest  orna- 
ments in  either  poetry,  history,  or  elocution."  In 
the  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons  from  1775 
to  1782  he  displayed  signal  abilities.  He  entered 
the  lists  with  Fox.  Even  Mr.  Cumberland  re- 
marks, that  he  "  never  suffered  the  clearness  of  his 
conceptions  to  be  clouded  by  any  obscurity  of  ex- 
pressions." 

Mr.  Bisset  says  of  Sackville, — "  This  nobleman, 
after  his  retirement  from  military  life,  had  devoted 
himself  to  political  affairs  ;  he  was  an  acute  reason- 
er,  and  a  respectable  speaker,  distinguished  for 
closeness  of  argument,  precision,  and  neatness  of 
language.  He  had  been  principally  connected  with 
Mr.  Grenville,  supported  him  when  he  was  minister, 
and  followed  him  into  opposition.  He  had  vindicat- 
ed the  supremacy  of  parliament,  voted  against  the 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  49 

Stamp  act,  and  against  its  repeal ;  and  had  shown 
himself  extremely  inimical  to  the  Grafton  adminis- 
tration. From  that  circumstance,  together  with  his 
reputed  abilities,  he  was  by  many  deemed  the  au- 
thor of  Junius.  For  several  years  after  Mr.  Gren- 
ville's  death  he  had  continued  in  opposition  ;  but  in 
1773  he  joined  the  ministry  in  the  East  India  affairs, 
and  took  a  decided  part  in  the  coercive  measures 
of  1774  and  1775."^ 

Lord  Walsingham,  in  defending  the  elevation  of 
Germain  to  the  peerage,  said  of  him — "  His  abilities 
are  equal  to  those  of  most  men  and  I  believe  infe- 
rior to  none."  Lord  Shelburne  charged  him  with 
having  failed  as  to  the  war,  but  gave  him  credit  for 
having  held  a  "  more  manly  style  of  language,  than 
any  other  minister,  and  with  having  acted  uniformly 
with  the  nicest  feelings,  the  strictest  honor,  the  most 
unimpeachable  integrity,  and  the  most  distinguished 
abilities.'''' 

Sir  N.  Wraxall  says — "  In  business  lord  George 
Germain  was  rapid,  yet  clear  and  accurate  ;  rather 
negligent  in  his  style,  which  was  that  of  a  gentleman 
and  a  man  of  the  world,  unstudied  and  frequently 
careless,  even  in  his  official  despatches.  But  there 
was  no  obscurity  or  ambiguity  in  his  compositions." 

*  Bisset,  ii,  219. 
5 


50  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

3.  Lord  George   Sackville  felt  the  Influence  of 
those  strong  Motives,  which  only  can  account  for 
the   letters  of  Junius. — The   writer   was  evidently 
stimulated  by  bitter  personal  hostility  towards  those, 
whom  he    assailed, — by   keen   indignation,    arising 
from  a  sense  of  wrong, — and  at  the  same  time  by 
an  irrepressible  ambition  and  desire  of  gaining  for 
himself  office  or  rank.     The  hostility  and  indigna- 
tion are  everv  where  seen  in  the  letters.     The  am- 
bition  and  thirst   for  power   must  be   supposed    in 
order   to    account   for  his   persevering    attempt   to 
overthrow  the  ministry  ;    but  it  is  betrayed  in  his 
private  letters.     In  one  to  Woodfall  he   says — "  I 
doubt  much,  whether  I  shall  ever  have  the  pleasure 
of  knowing  you ;  but,  if  things  take  the  turn  I  ex- 
pect, you  shall  know  me  hy  my  works.''^ — "  It  is 
true  I  have  refused  offers,  which  a  more  prudent  or 
a  more   interested   man   w^ould  have  accepted." — 
The  expected  turn  was  doubtless  a  revolution  in  the 
ministry  ;    and   the  works   alluded  to  may  be  the 
great  things  he  should  accomplish,  after  he  should 
gain  a  high  office.     In  his  first  letter  to  Wilkes  he 
says — "  Though  I  do  not  disclaim  the  idea  of  some 
personal  views  to  future  honor  and  advantage,  yet  I 
can  truly  say,  that  neither  are  they  little  in  them- 
selves," &;c. 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  51 

The  natural  temper  of  Sackville  was  irascible, 
and  after  his  unjust  degradation  from  military  rank 
and  service,  he  would  feel  indignant  towards  all, 
who  contributed  in  any  way  to  his  disgrace. 

The  marquis  of  Granby,  who  is  attacked  in  the 
first  letter  of  Junius,  was  under  Sackville  at  the 
battle  of  Minden.  He  was  commended  by  prince 
Ferdinand  at  the  expense  of  Sackville  : — "  I  re- 
gret, that  the  marquis  of  Granby  had  not  the  com- 
mand of  the  British  cavalry.  Had  he  commanded 
I  make  no  doubt  the  success  of  the  day  had  been 
much  more  complete  and  brilliant." — The  duke  of 
Grafton  is  assaulted  by  Junius  with  the  utmost  vio- 
lence ;  the  principal  witness  against  lord  Sackville 
was  colonel  Fitzroy,  brother  of  the  duke  of  Graf- 
ton.— Junius  assails  lord  Mansfield  ; — the  judge 
was  the  legal  adviser  of  lord  Sackville  before  his 
trial,  and  assured  him,  that  he  could  not  be  con- 
demned. He  was  mistaken  in  his  opinion,  and 
Sackville  might  even  suspect  him  of  treachery. — 
Junius  maintained  the  necessity  of  impeaching 
Mansfield  ;  and  Sackville  in  a  speech,  December 
6,  1770,  supported  a  motion  to  inquire  into  the 
administration  of  criminal  justice. — Junius  had  an 
embittered  hostility  towards  Scotchmen  ;  it  appears, 
that  a  majority  of  the  officers,  constituting  the  court 
martial  for  the  trial  of  lord  George,  were  Scotch- 


52 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


men.  He  had  also  passed  a  year  in  Scotland  in 
the  campaign  against  the  rebels. — The  most  con- 
spicuous persons  attacked  by  Junius,  are  the  men, 
who  were  the  agents  in  Sackville's  disgrace,  or 
who  succeeded  to  the  places,  which  he  held,  or 
gained  the  offices,  which  he  might  well  expect : 
— the  marquis  of  Granby,  colonel  Fitzroy,  lord 
George  Townsend,  lord  Charles  Manners,  the 
duke  of  Bedford,  and  others. — Of  Sackville's  am- 
bition  nothing   need   be   said. 

4.  The  author  of  Junius  had  been  a  soldier, 
as  Sackville  had  been. — In  a  private  letter,  Au- 
gust 25,  1767,  Junius  says  of  the  Townsends — 
"  I  am  not  a  stranger  to  this  par  nobile  fratrum, 
I  have  served  under  the  one  and  have  been  forty 
times  promised  to  be  served  by  the  other."  It 
is  known,  that  he  served  with  lord  Townsend  at 
Dettingen. — The  perpetual  military  allusions  in 
Junius  prove,  that  the  writer  had  been  a  soldier. 
Of  instances  the  following  may  be  given  : — "  That 
was  the  salient  point,  from  which  all  the  mis- 
chiefs and  disgraces  of  the  present  reign  took 
life  and  motion." — "  Place  them  in  the  post  of 
danger,  to  prevent  desertion.'^'' — "  The  wary  Wed- 
derburne,  the  pompous  Suffolk,  never  threw  away 
the  scabbard,  nor  ever  went  upon  a  forlorn  hopeJ'^ 
— "  If  you    consider   the    dignity   of  the  post    he 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


53 


deserted,  you  will  hardly  think  it  decent  to  quarter 
him  on  Mr.  Rigby." — "  I  may  quit  the  service, 
but  it  would  be  absurd  to  suspect  me  of  deser- 
tion."— "  We  cannot  hinder  their  desertion,  but 
we  can  prevent  their  carrying  over  their  arms  to 
the  service  of  the  enemy." — ''  Not  daring  to  attack 
the  main  body  of  Junius'  last  letter,  he  triumphs 
in  having,  as  he  thinks,  surprised  an  outpost  and  cut 
off  a  detached  argument,  a  mere  straggling  propo- 
sition. But  even  in  this  petty  warfare  he  shall  find 
himself  defeated.^'' — "His  palace  is  besieged;  the 
lines  of  circumvallation  are  drawing  round  him." — 
I  could  exhibit  many  more  such  military  allusions, 
were  it  necessary.  I  think  these  prove  the  writer 
to  have  been  a  soldier.  This  is  also  proved  by  the 
intimate  acquaintance  of  Junius  with  the  affairs  of 
the  war  office  and  the  concerns  of  the  army.  Who 
but  a  soldier  could  possibly  feel,  as  Junius  felt,  on 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Luttrell  as  adjutant  gen- 
eral : — "  The  insult  offered  to  the  army  in  general 
is  as  gross,  as  the  outrage  intended  to  the  people 
of  England.  What !  lieutenant  colonel  Luttrell 
adjutant  general  of  an  army  of  sixteen  thousand 


men  !  "- 


5.  Lord  Sackville  had  the  friendships  and  ani- 
mosities, which  are  indicated  by  the  letters  of  Ju- 
nius.— By  the  letter  of  September  20, 1768  and  other 

5* 


54  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

letters  it  appears,  that  Junius  was  the  friend  of  Sir 
Jeffery  Amherst : — "  You  have  sent  Sir  JefFery  Am- 
herst to  the  plough,"  he.  It  is  understood,  that 
Sackville  and  Amherst  were  intimate  from  child- 
hood ;  they  lived  together  in  Ireland ;  and,  after 
Sackville  became  secretary  of  state  Amherst  was 
appointed  commander  in  chief  and  created  a  baron. 
Sir  JefFery  had  a  brother,  to  whom  the  name  of 
Sackville  was  given. 

From  Junius'  letter  of  August  22,  1770,  it  ap- 
pears, that  he  was  the  friend  of  colonel  Cunning- 
hame,  adjutant  general  of  Ireland. — Lord  Sackville 
became  acquainted  with  Cunninghame  during  the 
campaign  in  Scodand,  and,  it  is  believed,  was  al- 
ways friendly  to  him. 

Junius,  as  appears  by  his  letters  August  6,  1768, 
and  December  15,  176S,  and  January  21,  1770, 
was  an  admirer  of  Mr.  Grenville.  Lord  Sackville, 
if  not  personally  acquainted  with  Mr.  Grenville,  yet 
had  for  him  a  political  friendship.  He  said  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1774,  in  a  speech — "  The  author  of  this 
bill,  Mr.  G.,  had  preserved  a  good  name,  while  in 
office,  and  when  out  :  and  he  sincerely  hoped  the 
noble  lord  would  endeavor  to  have  his  name  handed 
down  to  posterity,  with  the  same  honor,  as  Mr. 
Grenville   had." 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  55 

Junius  expresses  a  respect  for  the  character  of 
Mr.  Sawbridge,  and  recommends  his  appointment 
as  lord  mayor,  in  a  letter  to  Wilkes.  On  the  suc- 
cess of  Mr.  Nash  he  says  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Wood- 
fall — "  What  an  abandoned,  prostituted  idiot  is  your 
lord  mayor  ?" 

Now  it  is  known,  that  Sackville  was  on  terms  of 
friendship  with  Mr.  Sawbridge.  Their  estates  were 
contiguous  in  Kent,  adjoining  that  of  lord  Amherst. 
Sackville  represented  Hythe  from  1760  to  1768, 
when  he  resigned  in  favor  of  Mr.  Sawbridge,  and  by 
his  exertions  procured  his  election. 

Junius  in  February,  1772,  speaks  of  "  general 
Fowke  as  a  brave  and  worthy  man."  It  is  known, 
that  Sackville  was  the  friend  of  the  general. 

Junius  was  at  first  very  hostile  to  the  earl  of 
Chatham,  although  he  at  last  bestowed  upon  him 
his  high  commendation.  It  appears,  that  Sackville 
had  offended  Mr.  Pitt : — for  having  been  sent,  with 
the  duke  of  Marlborough,  on  an  expedition  to  the 
coast  of  France,  and  afterwards  being  offered  by 
Mr.  Pitt  the  command  of  the  expedition  to  St.  Cas, 
he  replied  imprudently — "  he  was  tired  of  hucca- 
neering."  He  insisted  upon  going  to  Germany ; 
but  his  sarcasm  was  remembered.  It  was  during 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Pitt,  that  his  disgrace  oc- 
curred.    Mr.  Pitt  immediately  adopted  the    senti* 


56  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

ments  of  prince  Ferdinand,  and  prosecuted  the  Ger- 
man war  with  vigor.  Sackville  regarded  the  war  as 
utterly  ineffectual  and  foolish. 

Junius  violently  attacked  the  duke  of  Bedford. 
One  cause  of  Sackville's  enmity  to  the  family  is  al- 
luded to  by  lord  Orford  : — "  The  house  of  Bedford, 
from  reasons  of  family,  were  not  his  well-wishers. 
The  sister  of  the  duchess  of  Bedford  had  married 
lord  John  Sackville,  and  had  quarrelled  with  lord 
George.  "  Another  reason  was,  that  on  the  duke 
^)i^s  bestowed  an  office  in  Ireland,  of  which  Sack- 
ville, at  the  time  of  his  disgrace,  was  deprived. 

The  hostility  of  Junius  to  the  princess  Dowager 
and  lord  Bute  is  evident  from  the  letter  of  19  De- 
cember, 1769  and  other  letters.  After  Sackville's 
disgrace,  although  he  had  been  familiar  with  the 
prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  III.,  yet  he  was 
prohibited  from  seeing  him  by  the  princess  Dowager 
and  lord  Bute.  The  attack  of  lord  Bute  by  the 
North  Briton  shortly  afterwards  is  in  correspon- 
dence with  the  indignant  feelings  of  Sackville. 

6.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted,  that  Junius  was  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  as  was  Sack- 
ville.— Junius  says,  28  May,  1770 — "The  speaker 
began  with  pretended  ignorance,  and  ended  with 
deciding  for  the  ministry.  We  were  not  surprised 
at  the  decision  ;  but  he  hesitated  and  blushed  at  his 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  57 

own  baseness,  and  every  man  was  astonished." — 
22  April,  1771. — "Yet  we  have  seen  him  in  the 
House  of  Commons  overwhelmed  with  confusion 
and  almost  bereft  of  his  faculties." — 13  December, 
1770 — "The  exclusion  is  made  general  5  their  lord- 
ships very  properly  considering,  that  the  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons  are  no  more  fit  to  be 
trusted  with  the  debates  of  a  public  assembly,  than 
the  spies  or  emissaries  of  a  foreign  ambassador,  or 
so  many  Jesuits  in  disguise." — 19  November,  1770 
— "  A  few  days  ago  I  was  in  a  large  public  compa-. 
ny,  where  there  happened  some  curious  conversa- 
tion.— He  [the  secretary  at  war]  assured  us,  that 
after  having  carefully,  &;c. — and  for  fear  we  should 
not  believe  him,  repeated  and  enforced  his  assertion 
five  several  times."  August  15,  1771 — "  J%  note 
will  hardly  recommend  him  to  an  increase  of  his 
pension,  or  a  seat  in  the  cabinet." — October  5, 
1771. — "  I  willingly  accept  of  a  sarcasm  from  colo- 
nel Barre,  or  a  simile  from  Mr.  Burke  ;  even  the 
silent  vote  of  Mr.  Calcraft  is  worth  reckoning  in  a 
division." 

7.  Lord  Sackville  held  the  political  sentiments, 
expressed  by  Junius. — That  Junius  was  an  advocate 
of  triennial  parliaments  appears  by  his  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 7,  1771.  A  motion  for  triennial  parliaments 
was  lost  in  the  House  of  Commons  March  4,  1772, 


58  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

by  a  large  majority  ,  but  Sackville  voted  in  favor  of 
it. — Junius  supported  the  American  stamp  act ;  of 
which  he  says  in  his  letter  December  19,  1767, — 
"  The  people,  who  were  most  clamorous  against  it, 
either  never  understood,  or  wilfully  misrepresented 
every  part  of  it."  Lord  Sackville,  in  reply  to  Burke 
March  7,  1774,  said — The  honorable  gentleman 
has  extolled  "  those,  who  advised  the  repeal  of  the 
stamp  act.  For  my  part-—/  was  of  opinion,  that  it 
should  not  he  repealed,  and  voted  accordingly.''^ — 
"  The  people  there  must  and  would  have  returned 
to  their  obedience,  if  the  stamp  act  had  not  been 
unfortunately  repealed."  (Cobbett's  Pari.  Deb.) — 
Junius  was  in  favor  of  repealing  the  duty  on  tea  : — 
"  It  ought  to  be  repealed  as  an  impolitic  act,  not  as 
an  oppressive  one."  Letter  to  Wilkes  7  Septem- 
ber, 1771.  Lord  Sackville  said  January  26,  1775 
— "  If  the  Americans  would  petition  for  their  repeal, 
he  would  stretch  forth  the  first  hand  to  present  it  ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  if  they  claimed  such  a  repeal 
as  a  right,  thereby  disputing  the  authority  of  the 
mother  country,  which  no  reasonable  man  ever 
called  in  question,  he  wished  it  might  be  enforced 
with  a  Roman  severity." — Junius  was  opposed  "  to 
cutting  away  the  rotten  boroughs."  Letter  Septem- 
ber 7,  1771.     It  is  probable,  lord  Sackville  was  of 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  59 

the  same  opinion,  for  he  sat  in  parliament  for  his 
own  borough  of  East  Grinstead. 

8.  Junius  was  not  an  Irishman,  yet  had  lived  in 
Ireland, — as  was  the  case  with  lord  Sackville. — 
Junius  speaks  of  the  Irish  as  "  a  barbarous  people" 
in  his  letter  September  16,  1767. — He  says  also — 
"  a  blush  seldom  tinges  those  happy  countenances, 
which  have  been  bathed  in  the  Liffey,"  June  16, 
1769.  He  speaks  also  of  Englishmen  and  dedi- 
cates his  letters  to  the  English  nation.  After  men- 
tioning the  people  of  England,  he  adds — our  coun- 
trymen.— He  alludes  also  ironically  to  ^  Irish  virtue,^ 
November  27,  1771. 

Some  reasons  for  believing,  that  Junius  had  lived 
in  Ireland,  have  already  been  given.  In  respect  to 
his  language  he  had  himself  been  dipped  in  the 
waters  of  "  the  LifFey."  He  was  tinged  so  early, 
that  with  all  his  care  he  could  not  get  rid  entirely  of 
the  hue.  Sackville  in  the  use  of  the  w^ord  so  is 
rather  Irish  than  English  : — "  We  have  had  no  let- 
ters from  Holland  for  some  days,  so  we  do  not  know, 
whether  the  French  have  attempted  any  thing." — 
Letter  January  15,  1748. 

9.  Junius  was  not  a  lawyer,  but  a  gentleman  of 
rank  and  independent  fortune  ;  which  may  be  af- 
firmed of  lord  Sackville. — "  Though  I  use  the 
terms  of  art,  do  not  injure  me  so  much,  as  to  sus- 


i^- 


60  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

pect  I  am  a  lawyer, — I  had  as  lief  be  a  Scotch- 
man." Letter  to  Wilkes  September  18,  J771.  He 
has  other  keen  remarks  concerning  lawyers. — In  his 
letter  of  April  12,  1769,  Junius  says — "  You,  I  think, 
may  be  satisfied,  that  my  rank  and  fortune  place  me 
above  a  common  bribe."  This  letter,  for  some  rea- 
son, though  signed  by  the  name  of  Junius,  was  omit- 
ted on  the  publication  of  the  letters  in  a  volume  ; 
probably  because  it  might  awaken  suspicions  as  to 
the  rank  of  the  writer. — In  his  letter  to  Sir  William 
Draper  he  says — "  I  should  have  hoped,  that  even 
my  name  might  carry  some  authority  with  it,  if  I  had 
not  seen,"  &ic. — Now,  would  a  person,  whose  name 
was  actually  of  no  weight  in  the  world,  be  likely  to 
write  in  this  manner  ? — I  think  it  also  incredible, 
that  any  person  should  speak  of  king  George  III., 
as  Junius  spake  of  him,  unless  he  was  a  man  of 
rank,  who  had  lived  in  personal  intercourse  with 
him,  if  not  when  king,  yet  before  : — "  I  know  that 
man  much  better  than  any  of  you.  Nature  intend- 
ed him  only  for  a  good-humored  fool.  A  systemat- 
ical education,  with  long  practice,  has  made  him  a 
consummate  hypocrite."  Letter  24  July,  1771. 
Mr.  Coventry  states,  that  Sackville  had  "  an  oppor- 
tunity of  knowing  the  disposition,  talents,  and  char- 
acter of  the  young  king,  from  having  been  so  much 
in  his  company  previous  to  his  disgrace."     If  lord 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


61 


George  Sackvllle  had  a  few  years  before  repaired 
very  humbly  to  court  to  kiss  the  hands  of  this  fool 
and  hypocrite^  "  whom  every  honest  man  should  de- 
test," h  will  be  more  easy  to  find  an  explanation  in 
the  temper  of  a  courtier  and  the  meanness  of  ambi- 
bition,  than  to  account  for  such  language  concerning 
his  king  from  a  person,  who  had  never  had  inter- 
course with  him. 

As  to  \{\s  fortune,  Junius  would  never  receive  any 
of  the  profits  of  the  Letters,  though  offered  by 
Woodfall.  He  said — "  I  am  far  above  all  pecunia- 
ry views."  He  also  assured  Woodfall,  in  reference 
to  a  prosecution, — "in  point  of  money  be  assured 
you  shall  never  suffer." 

10.  One  of  the  letters  of  Junius  had  written  upon 
it,  near  the  signature,  the  words  Pall  Mall;  in 
which  street,  it  is  known,  was  the  house  of  lord 
Sackville.  A  letter  of  Sackville  to  lord  Viscount 
Bateman  is  dated  thus — "Pall  Mall,  September  18, 
1759."  The  letter  of  Junius,  referred  to,  is  dated 
May  8,  1772,  addressed  to  Woodfall.  It  was  doubt- 
less through  inadvertence,  and  not  by  intention,  that 
he  wrote  Pall  Mall ;  which  evidently  betrays  the 
place  of  his  residence.  Who  else  lived  in  Pall  Mall, 
that  has  ever  been  suspected  of  writing  the  letters  of 
Junius  ? 

6 


64  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

But  why  should  an  aged  man,  just  sinkmg  into 
the  grave,  be  inclined  to  jest  at  all ;  or  why  should 
he,  if  not  the  writer,  recur  to  an  unfounded  suspicion 
of  having  written  those  letters  a  dozen  or  fifteen 
years  before  ?  But  if  he  was  the  writer ;  then,  as 
he  was  about  to  carry  with  him  the  grand  secret, 
which  had  been  the  burden  of  his  heart  for  so  many 
years,  it  would  occupy  many  of  his  thoughts  ;  and 
he  might  wish  to  know  once  more,  whether  any  sus- 
picion in  regard  to  him  lingered  in  the  world  ; — and 
therefore  might  have  spoken  on  the  subject  to  Cum- 
berland. If  Cumberland  uttered  to  him,  what  he 
has  said  in  his  book,  concerning  the  "  savage  heart" 
and  "  hypocrisy  "  of  the  author  ;  the  dying,  old  man 
would  have  derived  very  little  consolation  from  his 
remarks.  With  right  views  he  must  have  felt,  that 
he  had  purchased  his  peerage  very  dearly,  and  ef- 
faced from  his  character  one  blot  by  means  of  one 
still  deeper.  Yet  amidst  the  commingling  of  mo- 
tives and  passions  in  human  conduct,  the  author  of 
Junius,  while  his  first  aim  was  his  own  elevation, 
might  have  experienced  very  just  sentiments  of  in- 
dignation, if  not  of  contempt,  towards  men,  whose 
profligacy  he  knew  ;  and  might  also  have  been  in- 
fluenced by  soine  fixed  principles  of  politics.  Yield- 
ing him  all,  that  can  be  allowed,  I  have  however 
formed  a  poor  estimate  of  the  moral  character  of 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  65 

lord  Sackville.  I  cannot  envy  his  feelings,  as  the 
vanities  of  the  world  were  disappearing  from  before 
his  eyes. 

14.  Lord  Sackville's  last  interview  with  lord 
Mansfield  is  in  my  opinion  a  proof,  that  he  was  the 
author  of  the  letters  of  Junius. 

Sackville  had  not  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
Mansfield  for  some  years.    Yet  hearing,  that  he  was 
at  Tunbridge  Wells,  he  requested  an  interview  at 
his  own  house  before   he   died.    Accordingly  lord 
Mansfield  repaired  to  Stoneland.     As  lord  Sackville 
came  in  from  riding  and  entered  the  room,  he  stag- 
gered, and  there  was  such  a  death-like  character  in 
his   countenance,   as  disturbed   lord  Mansfield  and 
seemed  to  strike  him  with  horror.     Sackville  made 
an  apology  for  the  trouble,  he  had  given  him,  but 
said  he, — "  My  good   lord,  though  I  ought  not  to 
have  imposed  upon  you  the  painful    ceremony    of 
paying  a  last  visit  to  a  dying  man  ;  yet  so  great  was 
my  anxiety  to  return  you  my  unfeigned  thanks  for 
all  your  goodness  to  me,  all  the  kind  protection  you 
have  shown  me  through  the  course  of  my  unprosper- 
ous  fife,  that  I  could  not  know  you  was  so  near  me, 
and  not  wish  to  assure  you  of  the  invariable  respect, 
I  have  entertained  for  your  character,  and  now  in  the 
most  serious  manner  to  solicit  your  forgiveness,  if 
ever  in  the  fluctuations  of  politics  or  the  heats  of 

6^ 


66  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

party  I  have  appeared  in  your  eyes,  at  any  moment 
of  my  life,  unjust  to  your  great  merits  or  forgetful  of 
your  many  favors." — Lord  Mansfield  made  a  be- 
coming and  satisfactory  reply ;   and  then  withdrew. 

This  speech,  which  Mr.  Cumberland  wrote  down 
at  the  time,  must  be  allowed  to  be  a  very  extraordi- 
nary and  mysterious  one,  especially  as  it  is  not 
known,  that  Sackville  had  received  favors  from 
Mansfield,  But  if  we  regard  lord  Sackville  as  the 
author  of  Junius,  the  mystery  will  be  cleared  up. 

Let  us  say,  that  Sackville,  in  the  letters  of  Junius, 
had  attacked  lord  Mansfield  widi  the  utmost  vehe- 
mence.— "  The  designs  of  Mansfield  are  more 
subtle,  more  effectual,  and  secure. — Who  attacks 
the  liberty  of  the  press  ? — Lord  Mansfield. — Who 
invades  the  constitutional  power  of  juries  ? — Ijord 
Mansfield. — What  judge  ever  challenged  a  juryman 
but  lord  Mansfield  ?"  he. — At  the  close  of  his  long 
letter  to  Mansfield  he  says, — "  Considering  the  situ- 
ation and  abilities  of  lord  Mansfield,  I  do  not  scruple 
to  affirm,  with  the  most  solemn  appeal  to  God  for 
my  sincerity,  that,  in  my  judgment,  he  is  the  very 
worst  and  most  dangerous  man  in  the  kingdom. 
Thus  far  I  have  done  my  duty  in  endeavoring  to 
bring  him  to  punishment.  But  mine  is  an  inferior 
ministerial  ofllce  in  the  temple  of  justice. — 1  have 
bound  die  victim,  and  dragged  him  to  the  altar." — 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


67 


Such  was  the  attempt  to  cause  him  to  be  impeached 
and  ruined.  And  now  the  author  of  this  attack,  a 
behever  in  Christianity,  perceives,  that  he  is  about 
to  appear  before  God,  who  has  forbidden  the  emo- 
tions and  acts  of  hostility  and  the  language  of  revil- 
ing,— and  he  feels  it  to  be  a  duty  to  make  some 
concessions  to  the  man,  whom  he  had  ferociously  at- 
tacked and  deeply  injured,  and  to  ask  his  forgive- 
ness. He  sends  for  him.  Yet  he  cannot  explain 
the  precise  thing,  which  lies  as  a  burden  on  the 
mind.  He  deals. in  generalities,  and  asks  his  par- 
don, '  if  he  has  ever  appeared  in  his  eyes  to  be  unjust 
to  his  great  merits  ! '  If  Mansfield  had  no  suspicion, 
that  lord  Sackville  was  the  author  of  the  letters  of 
Junius,  such  a  speech  from  the  dying  man  must 
have  overwhelmed  him  with  astonishment. 

I  think,  there  was  here  an  amazing  struggle  be- 
tween stern  pride  and  the  dread  of  the  future, 
founded  on  a  belief  of  the  truth  and  some  view  of 
the  nature  of  the  Christian  religion.  But  unless 
Sackville  was  Junius,  it  is  not  known,  that  he  had 
any  clamorous  occasion  to  reconcile  himself  to  lord 
Mansfield. 

If  the  circumstances,  which  have  been  mentioned, 
be  now  brought  together,  they  will,  I  am  convinced, 
be  found  to  make  a  very  strong  case,  and  to  render 
it  extremely  probable,  that  lord  George  Sackville 


68  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

was  the  author  of  the  letters  of  Junius.  Let  any 
other  man  be  supposed  to  be  the  writer,  and  1  be- 
lieve it  will  be  impossible  to  bring  together  circum- 
stances, which  will  create  any  thing  of  a  probability 
like  this. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Argument   from    the      Comparison    of    Sackville^s 
^^  Address  ^^  with  the  Letters  of  Junius. 

I  NOW  proceed  to  an  argument,  which  has  never 
been  touched  upon  and  is  entirely  new ;  an  argu- 
ment of  still  greater  weight,  if  possible,  than  the  cir- 
cumstances stated,  but,  when  combined  with  them, 
rendering  it,  in  my  opinion,  certain  beyond  any  rea- 
sonable doubt,  that  Sackville's  secret,  though  he 
kept  it  faithfully,  is  no  longer  such.  The  argument, 
I  speak  of,  is  founded  on  co-incidences  of  style  be- 
tween lord  Sackville  and  Junius  so  striking,  as  to 
compel  conviction. 

In  September,  1759,  lord  Sackville  published  a 
"  Short  Address"  to  the  public,  which  I  read  many 
years  ago  in  Smollett's  Continuation  of  Hume's  His- 
tory of  England.  Short  as  this  address  is,  I  found 
in  it  many  indications  of  the  pen  of  Junius,  and 
drew  up  then  a  paper  on  the  subject,  which  is  now 
before  me,  and  from  which  I  take  the  following 
comparison.  I  am  sensible,  that  the  whole  should 
be  viewed  together  ;  and  then  the  inquiry  be  made, 


70  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

whether  the  co-incidence  is  not  remarkable?  A 
modern  writer  may  imitate  Junius  and  adopt  his 
phrases.  Junius,  if  he  was  not  Sackville,  would  not 
have  studied  his  Address  for  the  purpose  of  imbibing 
its  style.  The  Address,  it  must  be  remembered, 
preceded  the  Letters  of  Junius  about  ten  years. 

Address.  "  I  had  rather,  upon  this  occasion, 
submit  myself  io  all  the  inconveniences,"  &;c. 

Junius.  "  You  are  partial,  perhaps,  to  the  mili- 
tary mode  of  execution,  and  had  rather  see  a  score 
of  these  wretches  butchered." — "  Willingly  submit 
myself  to  the  judgment  of  my  peers." 

Address.  "  Torrent  of  calumny  and  abuse, 
which  has  been  so  maliciously  thrown  out  against 
me." 

Junius.  "  Scandalous  imputations,  thrown  out 
by  the  abettors  of  lord  Mansfield." 

Address.  *'  Had  he  condescended  to  have  in- 
quired into  my  conduct." 

Junius.  "  To  have  supported  your  assertion  you 
should  have  proved." 

Address.  "  Prove  my  innocence,  beyond  the 
possibility  of  a  doubt. ''^ 

Junius.  "  When  he  sees,  beyond  the  possibility 
of  a  doubt,  that"  &tc. 

Address.  "  Though  I  am  debarred  at  present 
from  stating  my  case  to  the  public.''^ 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  71 

Junius.  "  Examine  your  conduct  as  a  minister 
and  stating  it  fairly  to  the  public.'*'' — "  The  follow- 
ing fact, — has  not  yet  been  clearly  stated  to  the 
public.^'' 

Address.  "  The  oaths  of  witnesses,  whose  ve- 
racity cannot  he  called  in  question.^^ 

Junius.     ^^  You  will  not  question  my  veracity ." 

Address.  "  As  I  should  have  done,  had  1  not 
assurances." 

Junius.  "Will  run  the  hazards,  that  he  has 
done.^^ 

Address.  "  When  real  facts  are  truly  stated 
and  fully  proved." 

Junius.  "  The  truth  of  his  facts  is  of  more  im- 
portance."— "  False  in  argument,  true  in  fact,^^ — 
"  Your  first  fact  is  false.''^ — "  To  inquire  into  the 
truth  of  the  facts." — "  Found  every  circumstance 
stated,  to  be  literally  time." 

Address.  "  I  had  either  failed  in,  or  neglected 
my  duty." — "  W^hat  can  an  injured  officer  have  re- 
course to,  but  claiming  that  justice,"  he. 

Junius.  "  Dreadful  battles,  which  he  might  have 
been  engaged  in,  and  the  dangers,"  &£C. — "  A 
weakness  we  may  indulge  in,  if,"  he. — "  Would 
then  have  known  what  they  had  to  trust  to,  and 
would  never,"  &ic. — "  Is  at  least  as  much  as  you 


72  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

are    equal    <o." — "  Strictly    conformable    to,    and 
founded  upon  the  ancient  law." 

Address.  "  The  many  falsehoods,  which  have 
been  asstrtedy 

Junius.  "  Convinced  of  the  falsehood  of  his  as- 
sertionsy — "  Let  sophistry  evade,  let  falsehood  as- 
sertJ^ 

Address.  "  I  had  rather  submit — to  inconveni- 
ences, that  may  arise  from  the  want  of  style,  than 
borrow  assistance  from  the  pens  of  others." 

Junius.  "  I  will  not  contend  with  you  in  point  of 
composition ;  you  are  a  scholar,  Sir  William." — 
"  As  for  his  style,  t  shall  leave  it  to  the  critics." — 
"  He  may  want  eloquence  to  amuse." — "  It  does  not 
appear,  that  Junius  values  himself  upon  any  superior 
skill  in  composition." 

Address.  "  That  if  I  am  guilty,  I  may  suffer 
such  punishment,  as  1  may  have  deserved  ;  and,  if 
innocent,  that  I  may  stand  acquitted  in  the  opinion 
of  the  world ;  but  it  is  really  too  severe  to  have  been 
censured  unheard,  to  have  been  condemned  before 
I  was  tried,  and  to  be  informed  neither  of  my  crime 
nor  my  accusers." 

"  But  if  plans  of  a  battle  are  to  be  referred  to, 
which  can  give  no  just  idea  of  it ;  if  dispositions  of 
the  cavalry  and  infantry  are  supposed,  which  never 
existed  ;  if  orders  for  attacks  and  pursuits  are  quoi- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  73 

ed,  which  never  were  delivered  ;  and  if  disobedi- 
ence to  those  imaginary  orders  are  asserted  as  a 
crime  ;  what  can  an  injured  officer,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, have  recourse  to,  but  claiming  that  jus- 
tice, which  is  due  to  every  Englishman,  of  being 
heard  before  he  is  condemned  ? 

Junius.  "  Even  the  best  of  princes  may  at  last 
discover,  that  this  is  a  contention,  in  which  every 
thing  may  be  lost  but  nothing  can  be  gained ;  and 
as  you  became  minister  by  accident,  were  adopted 
without  choice,  trusted  without  confidence,  and  con- 
tinued without  favor,  be  assured,  that,  whenever  an 
occasion  presses,  you  will  be  discarded  without  even 
the  forms  of  regret." — "  But,  my  lord,  you  may 
quit  the  field  of  business,  though  not  the  field  of 
danger,  and  though  you  cannot  be  safe,  you  may 
cease  to  be  ridiculous." — "  To  write  for  profit  with- 
out taxing  the  press  ;  to  wTite  for  fame  and  to  be 
unknown ;  to  support  the  intrigues  of  faction  and  to 
be  owned  as  a  dangerous  auxihary  by  every  parly 
in  the  kingdom ;  are  contradictions,  which  the  minis- 
ter must  reconcile,  before  I  forfeit  my  credit  with  the 
public." 

In  the  last  sentences,  quoted  from  Sackville's 
Address,  I  am  persuaded  every  one,  who  is  accus- 
tomed to  observe  peculiarities  of  style,  will  see  the 
very  spirit  of  Junius.     Doubtless  some  one  of  the 

7 


/^ 


74  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

antecedent  phrases  and  constructions  may  be  found 
in  other  writers.  But  can  all  of  them  be  found  in 
any  writer  of  that  period,  especially  in  so  short  a 
piece  as  the  Address,  combined  with  the  antithesis, 
point,  and  force  of  the  quoted  sentences,  so  charac- 
teristic of  Junius  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

Argument  from  the  Comparison  of  the   "  Consider- 
ations.^^ 

In  1760  there  was  published  at  London  a  pam- 
phlet of  144  pages,  entitled,  "  Considerations  on  the 
Present  German  War,"  which  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  was  written  by  lord  Sackville.  It  appear- 
ed the  year  after  the  battle  of  Minden,  and  exposes 
the  folly  of  the  German  war,  presenting  such  views, 
as  lord  Sackville  would  be  likely  to  entertain.  It 
was  very  popular  and  soon  reached  a  third  edition. 
Many  answers  to  it  were  published  :  in  one  of  them 
the  author  is  addressed  as  "  Mr.,  or  my  lord,  Con- 
siderer,"  which  perhaps  is  an  intimation,  that  lord 
Sackville  was  regarded  as  the  author.  The  Critical 
Review  for  January  1761,  in  reviewing  one  of  these 
answers,  bestows  some  praise  upon  it,  but  adds — - 
"  We  doubt  not,  however,  but  the  Considerer  will 
be  able  to  weather  this  storm  with  the  same  facility 
he  has  hitherto  withstood  all  the  blasts  of  popular 
clamor,  and  the  destruction  aimed  at  his  head  by  an 
incensed  multitude.'*     Here  is,  doubdess,  a  refer- 


76  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

erice  to  lord  Sackville. — The  same  Review  warmly 
commends  the  work,  as  containing  "  a  great  fund 
of  entertainment,  instruction,  curious  intelligence, 
shrewd  observation,  laudable  spirit,  and  real  knowl- 
edge 5 "  and  two  years  afterwards  says,  that  not 
one  iact  or  argument  has  been  yet  disproved  or 
refuted. 

I  propose  to  point  out  some  peculiarities  of  style, 
proving,  that  the  author  of  the  ^'  Considerations," 
which  was  written  before  the  letters  of  Junius,  was 
also  the  author  of  those  letters. 

Nothing  will  follow  from  the  use  of  single  words 
and  phrases,  unless  they  are  uncommon  or  frequent- 
ly occur  ;  but  when  thus  employed  in  an  unusual 
manner  in  two  productions,  they  suggest,  that  the 
productions  came  from  one  pen. 

Considerations.  "  France  has  for  a  century 
past  been  formidable  to  the  rest  of  Europe." — "  By 
attacking  the  French  in  their  islands,  by  which  only 
they  can  ever  be  formidable  to  Great  Britain." — 
"  Will  soon  grow  formidable.^^ — "  Might  have  made 
them  formidable  to  us." — "  Would  the  crown  of 
France  be  so  veiy  formidably  ijinched  by  the  acqui- 
sition?"— "  In  any  de^\:ee  foi'midable  to  Britain." 

Junius.  "  Finds  him,  at  last,  too  strong  to  be 
commanded,  and  too  formidable  to  be  removed." — 
"  The  most  formidahle  minister,  that  ever  was  em- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  77 

ployed,  under  a  limited  monarch,  to  accomplish  the 
ruin  of  a  free  people." — "  Armed  with  the  sovereign 
authority,  their  principles  are  formidable, ^^ 

In  my  opinion  there  is  something  peculiar  in  the 
use  of  this  word,  which  is  seldom  used  by  writers  of 
that  period.  A  soldier  is  the  character  most  likely 
to  employ  it.  Junius  uses  it  in  other  instances  be- 
sides those  quoted. 

Considerations.  "  That  must  commit  them  in 
eternal  quarrels  \vith  every  member  of  the  Germanic 
body." 

Junius.  "Without  committing  the  honor  of  your 
sovereign,  or  hazarding  the  reputation  of  his  govern- 
ment." 

Considerations.  "  What  the  amount  of  this  is, 
/  confess  I  do  not  know." 

Junius.  "  When  I  see  questions,  Sic.  without 
argument  or  decency,  /  confess  I  give  up  the  cause  in 
despair." — "  Here,  I  confess,  you  have  been  active." 
— "  And,  /  confess,  I  have  not  that  opinion  of  their 
knowledge." — "  But  now,  I  confess,  they  are  not  ill 
exchanged." — "  I  confess  I  give  you  some  credit  for 
your  discretion." — "  Oppose  their  dissolution,  upon 
an  opinion,  I  confess,  not  very  unwarrantable  ;"  and 
so  in  a  dozen  other  instances. 

Considerations.      "  They    are    driven    out    of 

Germany.     Be  it  so  :  was  any  one  of  the  towns, 

7* 


78  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

which  they  shall  quit  in  their  retreat,  their's  before?" 
— ''  He  might  beat  the  French  out  of  Hanover.  Be 
it  so.  Still  Britain  must  be  at  the  expense." — 
"  But  be  it  50,  let  them  both  come  to  our  aid." 

Junius.  "  Better  suited  to  the  dignity  of  your 
cause,  than  that  of  a  newspaper.  Be  it  so.  Yet, 
if  newspapers  are  scurrilous,  you  must  confess  they 
are  impartial." — "  Amounts  to  a  high  misdemeanor. 
Be  it  so  :  and  if  he  deserves  it,  let  him  be  punish- 
ed."— "  Ought  not  to  pass  unpunished.     Be  it  so." 

Considerations.  "They  found  it  impractica- 
ble to  go  any  where  else." — "  Impracticable  at- 
tempt."— "  To  confound  a  diminutive,  defensive, 
ruinous,  and  impracticable  measure." — "  Impracti- 
cable task." — "  Both  nations  see  the  impracticable- 
ness  of  bringing  them  over." — "  Absolutely  impraC" 
ticable  for  them  to  raise  their  navy  to  an  equality 
with  ours." 

Junius.  "  Let  us  try  whether  these  fatal  dissen- 
sions may  not  yet  be  reconciled ;  or,  if  that  be  im- 
practicable, let  us."—-"  There  is  no  practicable  re- 
treat." 

Considerations.  "  And  who  very  candidly 
stated  the  subject,  and  left  his  hearers,  if  they  had 
pleased,  to  draw  the  consequences." — "  Though 
every  thing  was  stated  with  the  greatest  fairness  and 
precision.*' 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  79 

Junius.  "  In  continuing  to  examine  your  con- 
duct as  a  minister,  and  stating  it  fairly  to  the  pub- 
lic."— "  If  the  question  had  been  once  stated  with 
precision." — "  Stating  and  refuting  the  objections." 
— "  I  mean  to  state,  not  entirely  to  defend  his  con- 
duct." 

Considerations.  "  J^ot  to  mention,  that  in  the 
present  case." 

Junius.  "  JVot  to  mention  a  multitude  of  prerog- 
ative writs." 

Considerations.  "  Indangered,  intire,  intrust- 
ed, indured,  inriched,  imploy,  intail,"  instead  of 
"  endangered,"  &ic. 

Junius,   edhion  of  1783.     "  Intrusted,  intitles," 

Considerations.  "  They  ought  to  declare  no 
more  than  they  really  intend." — "  Not  that  any 
thing  of  diis  nature  really  would  happen." — "  If  we 
really  think  ourselves  strong  enough." — "  Not  as 
really  matter  of  their  opinion." — "  But  do  we  really 
transport  troops  into  Germany  upon  as  cheap  terms 
as  France." — "  What  the  quantity  of  these  really  is, 
may  not  be  easy  to  determine." 

Junius.  "  If  he  really  be,  what  I  think  him,  hon- 
est."—" Whose  character  I  really  respect." — ''  But 
really,  Sir,  this  way  of  talking." — "  Which  affect  in- 
dividuals only,  is  really  unworthy  of  your  under- 


80  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

Standing." — "  But  really,  Sir,  my  honest  friend's 
suppositions." — "  But  really,  Sir,  the  precedent  with 
respect  to  the  guards." — "  It  is  time  for  those,  who 
really  mean  well  to  the  cause." — "  For  really,  Sir 
William,  I  am  not  your  enemy." — "  Do  you  then 
really  think,"  &ic. 

Considerations.  "  In  short,  if  we  are  to  per- 
sist in  this  ruinous  and  impracticable  German  war." 
— "  In  short,  this  is  which  France  never  can  be 
hurt  by,  and  never  can  be  weary  of." — "  In  short, 
there  has  never  any  reason  yet  been  given." — "  In 
short,  either  there  is  such  a  thing." — "  In  short,  men 
may  talk  big  about  the  public  faith,  but  every  one 
knows  what  is  meant  by  a  resolution  of  the  house." 
— "  In  short,  the  two  houses  are  committed  in  an 
eternal  war." 

Junius.  "  Or,  in  short,  if  these  arguments  should 
be  thought  insufficient,  we  may  fairly  deny  the  fact." 
— "  In  short.  Sir,  to  collect  a  thousand  absurdities 
into  one  mass." — "  Or,  in  short,  did  they  attempt  to 
produce  any  evidence  of  his  insanity?" 

Considerations.  "  I  will  leave  the  reader  to 
picture  to  himself  what  must  happen  long  before 
we  have  gone  such  a  length^ — "  It  is  the  property 
of  error  to  fly  out  into  endless  lengths,  without  re- 
specting any  common  point  or  centre." 

Junius.     "  Supposes,  that  the  present  House  of 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  81 

Commons,  in  going  such  enormous  lengths,  have 
been  imprudent  to  themselves." — "  Where  shall  we 
find  the  man,  who,  with  purer  principles,  will  go  the 
lengths,  and  run  the  hazards,  that  he  has  done  ? " — 
"  When  a  man,  who  stands  forth  to  the  public,  has 
gone  that  length,  from  which  there  is  no  practicable 
retreat." 

Considerations.  "Providence  has  been  pleas- 
ed to  present  to  our  view  the  means  of  sohd  peace 
and  independence  :  and  to  have  reserved,  for  the  pe- 
culiar glory  of  his  Majesty's  reign,  the  placing  our 
island  in  a  state  of  happiness." 

Junius.  "  To  have  supported  your  assertion, 
you  should  have  proved,  that  the  present  ministry." 

Considerations.  "We  had  Prussian  caps  to 
make  our  ladies  look  fine,  and  Prussian  cross-bones 
to  shew  their  men  the  more  frightful ;  and,  which 
was  more  than  both,  we  had  Prussian  ale  for  the 
mob  to  get  drunk  with." — "  The  thoughtless  mob 
may  be  instantaneously  converted  in  his  favor." 

Junius.  "  Lord  Chatham  very  properly  called 
this  the  act  of  a  mob,  not  of  a  Senate." 

Considerations.  "  It  will  by  no  means  follow, 
that  every  continental  connection  must  therefore  be 
right :  else  we  must  read  our  logic  backwards,  and 
say,  Omne  minus  includit  majus,^^ 


82  JUNITTS   UNMASKED. 

Junius.  "  He  changes  the  terms  of  the  proposi' 
tion.^^ — "  His  logic  seems  to  have  been  studied  un- 
der Mr.  Dyson.  That  miserable  pamphleteer,  di- 
viding the  only  precedent  in  point,  and  taking  as 
much  of  it,  as  suited  his  purpose,  had  reduced  his 
argument  to  something  like  the  shape  of  a  syllo- 
gism."— "  If  I  admitted  the  premises,  I  should  agree 
in  all  the  consequences  drawn  from  them." — "  This 
is  the  very  logic,  taught  at  St.  Omer's." — "  In  this 
article,  your  first  fact  is  false — I  could  wish  you 
would  pay  a  greater  attention  to  the  truth  of  your 
premises,  before  you  suffer  your  genius  to  hurry  you 
to  a  conclusion." — "  You  assure  me,  that  my  logic 
is  puerile  and  tinsel ;  that  it  carries  not  the  least 
weight  or  conviction  ;  that  my  premises  are  false, 
and  my  conclusions  absurd." — "  This  may  be  logic 
at  Cambridge,  or  at  the  treasury." 

Considerations.  "  If  from  reasoning  we  recur 
to  facts »^^ 

Junius.      "  It  depends    upon    a    combination   of 
facts  and  reasoning. ^^ — "  By  reconciling  absurdities, 
and  making  the  same  proposition,  which  is  false  and 
absurd  in  argument,  true  in /ad." 

Considerations.  "  And  the  Dutch  and  Danes 
have  given  no  proof  of  their  wishing  success  to  our 
cause.  /  do  not  mean  the  defence  of  Hanover,  but 
the  war,  in  which  we  are  supporting  the  king   of 


JUNIUS   UNMASKED.  83 

Prussia."* — "  I  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  these  subsi- 
dies did  not  afterwards  grow  larger." 

Junius.  "  I  would  have  the  manners  of  the  peo- 
ple purely  and  strictly  republican.  /  do  not  mean 
the  licentious  spirit  of  anarchy  and  riot.  /  mean  a 
general  attachment  to  the  commonweal." — "  The 
question  to  those,  who  meaii  fairly  to  the  Hberty  of 
the  people." — "  Do  you  mean  to  desert  that  just  and 
honorable  system." — "  They,  who  object  to  detach- 
ed parts  of  Junius'  last  letter,  either  do  not  mean  him 
fairly." — "  They,  who  w^ould  carry  the  privileges  of 
parliament  farther  than  Junius,  either  do  not  mean 
well  to  the  public,  or  know  not  what  they  are  do- 
ing."— ii  It  is  time  for  those,  who  really  mean  well 
to  the  cause." — "  Without  meamng  an  indecent 
comparison  I  may  venture  to  foretel." — "  I  do  not 
mean  to  decline  the  question  of  right." 

Considerations.  "  It  is  not  now  the  business 
of  France  to  exert  its  whole  force,''^ 

Junius.  "  Exert  their  utmost  abilities  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  it." — "  Gave  us  no  promise  of  that  un- 
common exertion  of  vigor,^^ — "  He  must  now  exert 
the  whole  power  of  his  capacity." 

"  Considerations.  "  Many  persons,  I  know^ 
will  think  it  strange." — ''  /  knowj  it  is  said,  we  have 
money  enough." — "  /  know,  that  it  has  been  said, 


84  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

that  England  paid." — "  /  know,  it  has  been  said, 
that  our  allies." 

Junius.  "  My  premises,  /  know,  will  be  denied 
in  argument." — "  I  know  it  has  been  alleged  in  your 
favor." — "  A  courtier,  /  know,  will  be  ready  to 
maintain  the  affirmative." 

Considerations.  "  To  contribute  he  is  capable 
of  to  the  public  service." — "  This  was  an  august  al- 
liance, worthy  of  a  king  of  England  to  fight  at  the 
head  of." — "  Which  England  can  be  indangered 
hy  ;  and  the  only  state,  which  England  is  now  at  war 
withy — "  Proves  the  immense  height  of  power, 
which  that  kingdom  may  arrive  at,  and,"  &ic. — 
"  Practising  less  of  its  religious  tyranny  over  its  Pro- 
testant subjects,  than  it  had  been  ordinarily  used  to." 
— "  Which  in  every  other  case  is  allowed  to  be  the 
best  rule  to  found  a  judgment  upon." — "  Whither 
could  they  wish  to  transfer  the  war,  rather  than  into 
Germany,  where  they  have  nothing  to  lose,  or  be  in 
fear  for ;  and  where  could  they  wish  to  have  us 
meet  them,  rather  than  in  a  country,  where  we  have 
nothing  to  hope  for  ?  " — "  But  what  is  the  benefit, 
which  this  much  greater  sum  is  the  purchase  o/"?" 
— "  A  specific  renunciation,  which  in  our  future 
treaty  cannot  be  thought  of." — "  A  greater  expense 
for  the  German  war,  than  it  had  then  the  least  idea 
of." — *'  To    carry   them   to    an   infinitely    greater 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  85 

height,  than  any  other  men  could  have  thought  o/*." 
— ^"  Cannot  build  them  a  single  frigate  to  annoy  our 
coast  with.'^'' — "  Which  from  the  nature  of  their  quar- 
rel they  can  never  be  free  from.^^ — "  And  what  is 
all  this  slaughter  of  German  protestgnts  to  end  in .' " 
— "To  fight  in  a  cause,  which  all  the  powers  of 
Europe  are  averse  ^o." — "  Finding  our  enemy  a 
field  to  beat  us  in." — "  France  has  Switzerland, 
Italy,  Germany,  and  Flanders  to  recruit  out  of." — 
"  In  short,  this  is  a  war,  which  France  never  can  be 
hurt  by,  and  never  can  be  weary  of." — "  Have  no 
other  ground  to  meet  us  on." 

Junius.  "  Before  you  had  obliged  lord  Granby 
to  quit  a  service  he  was  attached  to." — "  Have  noth- 
ing to  regret,  but  that  it  has  never  been  adhered  to." 
— "  He  was  entided  to  it  by  the  house  he  hves  in." 
— "  An  early  conviction,  that  no  serious  resentment 
was  thought  of  and  that,"  he. — "  But  was  there  no 
other  person  of  rank  and  consequence  in  the  city, 
whom  government  could  confide  m,  but  a  notorious 
Jacobite?" — ^'  When  the  party,  he  wishes  well  to, 
has  the  fairest  prospect  of  success." — "  What  a  piti- 
ful detail  did  it  end  in  ! — some  old  clothes, — a 
Welch  poney,"  he. — "  If  any  coarse  expressions 
have  escaped  me,  I  am  ready  to  agree,  that  they 
are  unfit  for  Junius  to  make  use  of" — "  To  rail  at 
him  for  crimes  he  is  not  guilty  of." — *•  In  whatever 
8 


86  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

departments  their  various  abilities  are  best  suited  to^ 
— "  When  lord  Camden  supposes  a  necessity  (which 
the  king  is  to  judge  o/);" — "No  remedy  for  the 
grievance  complained  of;  for  if  there  were,"  &tc. — 
"  A  whole  life  of  deliberate  iniquity  is  ill  atoned yb?', 
by  doing  now  and  then  a  laudable  action." — "  But 
they  did  more  than  people  in  general  were  aware 
ofy — "  Are  the  real  cause  of  all  the  public  evils  we 
complain  q/*." — "  And  truly,  Sir  William,  the  part 
you  have  undertaken  is  at  least  as  much  as  you  are 
equal  ^o." — "  Presume  to  intrude  yourself,  unthought 
of,  uncalled /or,  upon  the  patience  of  the  public  ?" — 
'^  Avail  yourself  of  all  the  unforgiving  piety  of  the 
court  you  live  in,  and  bless  God,  that  'you  are  not 
as  other  men  are.'  " — "  Should  have  forbidden  you 
to  make  use  q/l" — "  Let  us  look  back  to  a  scene,  in 
which  a  mind  like  yours  will  find  nothing  to  repent 
o/*." — "  An  acquisition,  the  importance  of  which  you 
liave  probably  no  conception  o/*." — "  W^ould  then 
have  known  what  they  had  to  trust  to,  and  would 
never,"  &tc. — "  Would  never  have  felt,  much  less 
would  he  have  submitted  to,  the  dishonest  necessi- 
ty."— "  To  sacrifice  ourselves  is  a  weakness  we  may 
indulge  in,  if  we  think  proper." — "  The  man,  I 
speak  of,  has  not  a  heart,"  &tc. — "  A  multitude  of 
political  ofl^ences  to  atone /or." 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  87 

Considerations.     "  The  only  chance  we  have 
however  for  such  an   union,  and  the  only  means  of 
accelerating  it,  is  to  leave  the  French  to  themselves  ; 
not  to  conquer  Germany,  for  that  is  impossible ;  but 
to  harass  it  as  much  as  they  please,  and  make  them- 
selves   as    odious    as    we   can  desire." — "  Whither 
could  they  wish  to  transfer  the  war,  rather  than  into 
Germany,  where  they  have  nothing  to  lose  or  be  in 
fear  for ;  and  where  could  they  wish  to  have  us  meet 
them,  rather  than  in  a  country,  where  we  have  noth- 
ing to  hope  for?" — "  The  sums  given  seem  not  cal- 
culated to  purchase  a  defence,  so  much  as  to  keep 
off  an  attack." — "  It  would  have  been  placed  under 
the  guard  of  our  front,  and  not  out  of  the  reach 
even  of  our  hands." — "  If  we  could  be  persuaded  to 
use  that  power  more,  and  talk  of  it  less,  we  might 
perhaps  be  acting  a  wiser  part." — "  Being  obliged  to 
pay  him  money  to  enable  him  to  fight  his  own  bat- 
tles against  enemies,  which  Britain  has  no  quarrel 
with." — "  When  we  had  got  it,  would  we  keep  it,  if 
we  could  ?  Could  we  keep  it  if  we  would  ?" — "  Al- 
lowing it  not  impossible  to  take  a  town,  it  would  be 
absolutely  so  to  know  what  to  do  with  it."- — "  A  war, 
which  France  never  can  be  hurt  by,  and  never  can 
be  weary  of." — "  The  channel  and  our  fleet  would 
keep  the   peace ;   we   should   not  want  to  get  any 
thing  from  them  ;  and  they  would  not  be  able  to  get 


88  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

any  thing  from  us." — "And  is  it  not  the  usual  policy 
of  men  in  such  circumstances  to  secure  their  ene- 
mies as  soon  as  they  have  wearied  their  friends?" — 
"  Artfully  laid  upon  us  the  burden  of  bribing  one 
half  of  Germany  and  fighting  the  other. — His  de- 
mands will  rise  with  his  greatness,  and  the  time  will 
come  when  our  money  or  our  patience  will  be  ex- 
hausted :  sooner  or  later  he  will  be  wanting  some- 
thing more  of  us  than  we  shall  be  able  to  pay  for  its 
immunity.  Will  then  the  prey,  which  he  has  so 
long  watched  for,  appear  the  less  inviting,  for  Brit- 
ain's being  obliged  to  give  up  the  protection  of  it  ? 
Or  will  the  morsel  be  the  less  delicious,  for  our  hav- 
ing spent  there  so  many  millions  in  the  defence  of 
it?" — "  Is  either  the  payment  of  fear,  to  buy  off  the 
evil  of  suffering ;  or  it  is  the  purchase  of  good,  to 
procure  the  benefit  of  assistance." — "  It  forms  con- 
tinental connections  :  that  is,  it  contentedly  lavishes 
away  its  treasures  for  a  something,  which  it  can 
draw  no  troops  from,  called  by  a  fine  name,  to 
which  it  can  put  no  meaning." — "  When  all  that 
continent  is  connected  with  France  in  an  alliance 
against  us,  and  the  cause  we  would  espouse  ;  the 
sending  our  troops  thither  in  such  a  case,  and  upon 
such  a  pretence,  is  little  better  than  the  running  our 
head  against  a  wall,  and  saying  we  must  have  a 
connection  with  it." — "  To  consider  where  it  can 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


89 


make  war  to  greatest  advantage ;  where  it  is  it- 
self strongest,  and  its  enemy  weakest ;  where  it  has 
itself  least  to  lose,  and  its  enemy  most ;  and  where 
its  victories  are  like  to  have  the  best  effect,  and 
soonest  bring  its  enemy  to  peace." — "  The  only  ac- 
quisitions it  would  be  of  any  advantage  to  us  to  gam, 
and  the  only  ones,  which  it  is  practicable  for  us  to 
keep." — "  Is  by  much  too  expensive  an  affair  to  be 
chosen  upon  any  account  as  a  French  diversion ; 
and  by  much  too  serious  an  affair  to  be  considered 
in  any  sense  as  an  English  one." 

I  think  no  one,  conversant  with  Junius,  can  read 
the  foregoing  extracts  from  the  "  Considerations," 
without  perceiving  the  very  spirit  and  style  of  Ju- 
nius :  let  him  compare  them  with  the  following. 

Junius.  "  But,  my  lord,  you  may  quit  the  field 
of  business  though  not  the  field  of  danger,  and 
though  you  cannot  be  safe  you  may  cease  to  be  ri- 
diculous."— "  Even  the  best  of  princes  may  at  last 
discover,  that  this  is  a  contention,  in  which  every 
thing  may  be  lost  but  nothing  can  be  gained." — 
"You  began  with  betraying  the  people;  you  con- 
clude with  betraying  the  king." — "They  have  relin- 
quished the  revenue,  but  judiciously  taken  care  to 
preserve  the  contention." — "  The  duke,  it  seems, 
had  contracted  an  obhgation  he  was  ashamed  to  ac- 
knowledge  and   unable   to   acquit.     You,  my  lord, 

8* 


90  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

had  no  scruples.  You  accepted  the  succession 
with  all  its  incumbrances,  and  have  paid  Mr.  Lut- 
trell  his  legacy,  at  the  hazard  of  ruining  the  estate." 
— "  You  shall  be  called  upon  to  answer  for  the  ad- 
vice, which  has  been  given,  and  either  discover  your 
accomplices,  or  fall  a  sacrifice  to  their  security." — 
"  He  determined  to  quit  a  court,  whose  proceedings 
and  decisions  he  could  neither  assent  to  with  honor, 
nor  oppose  with  success." — "  Their  constituents 
would  have  a  better  opinion  of  their  candor,  and,  I 
promise  you,  not  a  worse  opinion  of  their  integrity." 
— "  The  honor  of  a  nobleman  is  no  more  consider- 
ed than  the  reputation  of  a  peasant ;  for,  with  differ- 
ent liveries,  they  are  equally  slaves." — "  The  mo- 
tions of  a  timid,  dishonest  heart,  which  neither  has 
virtue  enough  to  acknowledge  truth,  or  courage  to 
contradict  it." — "  The  impostor  employs  force  in- 
stead of  argument,  imposes  silence  where  he  cannot 
convince,  and  propagates  his  character  by  die 
sword." — "He  became  minister  by  accident;  but 
deserting  the  principles  and  professions  which  gave 
him  a  moment's  popularity,  we  see  him  from  every 
honorable  engagement  to  the  public  an  apostate  by 
design." — "  His  reputation,  like  that  unhappy  coun- 
try to  which  you  refer  me  for  his  last  military 
achievements  [Hanover],  has  suffered  more  by  his 
friends  than  his  enemies." — "  These  are  the  gloomy 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  91 

companions  of  a  disturbed  imagination ;  the  melan- 
choly madness  of  poetry  without  the  inspiration." — 
"  As  you  are  yourself  a  singular  instance  of  youth 
without  spirit,  the  man  who  defends  you  is  a  no  less 
remarkable  example  of  age  without  the  benefit  of 
experience." — ^'  From  one  extreme  you  suddenly 
start  to  another,  without  leaving  between  the  weak- 
ness and  the  fury  of  the  passions  one  moment's 
interval  for  the  firmness  of  the  understanding." — 
"  Whose  views  can  only  be  answered  by  reconcihng 
absurdities,  and  making  the  s^me  proposition,  which 
is  false  and  absurd  in  argument,  true  in  fact." — "  It 
is  not,  that  you  do  wrong  by  design,  but  that  you 
should  never  do  right  by  mistake." — "  Having  sold 
the  nation  to  you  in  gross,  tliey  will  undoubtedly  pro- 
tect you  in  the  detail ;  for,  while  they  patronise  your 
crimes,  they  feel  for  their  own." — "  The  rays  of 
royal  indignation,  collected  upon  him,  served  only  to 
illuminate,  and  could  not  consume." — "  To  a  situa- 
tion so  unhappy,  diat  you  can  neither  do  wrong 
without  ruin,  nor  right  without  affliction." — "  The 
prince,  who  imitates  their  conduct,  should  be  warn- 
ed by  their  example  ;  and,  while  he  plumes  himself 
upon  the  security  of  his  title  to  the  crown,  should 
remember,  that,  as  it  was  acquired  by  one  revolu- 
tion, it  may  be  lost  by  another." 


92  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

Considerations.  "  An  army  is  a  many-headed 
monster,  that  must  be  fed  ;  and  the  defending  army 
ought  to  have  as  many  mouths  as  die  attacking;  and 
each  will  get  but  all  they  can  from  the  poor  inhabit- 
ants."— "  The  French  have  already  been  in  posses- 
sion of  this  country.  Did  the  sun  refuse  to  shine,  or 
the  rivers  to  flow,  upon  that  account?" — "We  con- 
fess he  lives  by  miracle,  and  are  wondering  every 
year,  that  he  does  not  fall :  and  yet  this  is  the  prince, 
that  we  have  placed  our  only  dependence  on." — 
"  Instead  of  attacking  this  bull  by  the  horns  on  his 
German  frontier,  let  us  rather  gore  him  in  his  flank, 
or  pierce  him  to  the  heart." — "  Draw  down  good 
troops  for  another  army,  I  had  almost  said,  out  of 
the  moon  ;  for  upon  this  earth,  I  have  shown,  they 
are  not  to  be  had." — "  Why  take  so  immensely 
wide  a  circuit,  to  come  at  a  point  which  lies  straight 
before  us  ? " — "  Do  the  resentments  even  of  private 
men  subside  so  soon,  after  the  most  premeditated 
rancor  ?  The  operations  of  fear  may  be  instantane- 
ous :  but  love  and  friendship  are  plants  of  a  slower 
growth." — "  All  the  connections,  therefore,  which 
we  can  have  at  present  with  these,  must,  I  fear,  be 
at  the  muzzles  of  our  musquets." — "  For  a  moment 
let  us  lament  the  fate  of  our  island,  that  having  so 
long  remained  above  water,  it  must  now  sink,  unless 
chained  and  moored  by  some  connection  to  the  con- 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  93 

tinent." — "  But  not  to  lose  sight  of  this  subject  in 
this  unmeaning  smoke-ball  of  a  pompous  phrase." — 
"  And  how  would  the  mighty  statesman's  ghost  stalk 
indignant  by  the  man,"  &ic. — "  Is  little  better  than 
running  our  head  against  a  wall,  and  saying  we  must 
have  a  connection  with  it." 

Junius.       "  Private    credit   is   wealth  ; — public 
honor   is    security.     The   feather,   that   adorns  the 
royal  bird,   supports  his   flight.     Strip  him   of  ~  his 
plumage,  and  you  fix  him  to  the  earth." — "  Ample 
justice  has  been  done,  by  abler  pens  than  mine,  to 
the  separate  merits  of  your  life  and  character.     Let 
it   be   my  humble  office  to  collect   the   scattered 
sweets  till  their  united  virtue  tortures  the  sense." — 
"  Not  daring  to  attack  the  main  body  of  Junius'  last 
letter,  he  triumphs  in  having,  as  he  thinks,  surprised 
an  outpost,  and  cut  off  a  detached  argument,  a  mere 
straggling  proposition.     But  even  in  this  petty  war- 
fare he  shall  find  himself  defeated." — "  If  you  deny 
him  the  cup,  there  will  be  no  keeping  him  within 
the  pale  of  the  ministry." — "  My  zeal  for  his  service 
is  superior  to  neglect,  and,  like  Mr.  Wilkes'  patriot- 
ism, thrives  by  persecution." — "  When  that  noxious 
planet  approaches  England,  he  never  fails  to  bring 
plague    and    pestilence    along    with    him." — "  The 
flaming  patriot,  who   so   lately   scorched  us  in  the 
meridian,    sinks   temperately   to   the   west,    and   is 


94  JUNIUS    UNMASKES. 

hardl}^  felt  as  he  descends;" — "  The  wary  Wedder- 
burne,  the  pompous  Suffolk,  never  threw  away  the 
scabbard,  nor  ever  went  upon  a  forlorn  hope."—"  In 
the  shipwreck  of  the  state,  trifles  float,  and  are 
preserved  ;  while  every  thing  solid  and  valuable 
sinks  to  the  bottom,  and  is  lost  for  ever."—"  The 
very  sun-shine  you  Hve  in  is  a  prelude  to  your 
dissolution.  When  you  are  ripe,  you  shall  be 
plucked." 

Considerations.  "  But  shall  we  suffer  the  Pro- 
testant interest  to  be  oppressed  ?  This  is  a  question 
put  into  the  mouths  of  many  good  people,  and  there- 
fore deserves  a  particular  answer." — "  But  shall 
France  be  suffered  to  conquer  Hanover  ?  No  one, 
who  is  in  the  least  acquainted,"  &c. — "  But  the 
poor  people,  it  may  be  said,  deserve  our  compas- 
sion. True,  they  do  so ;  and  for  that  reason  we 
ought  to  let  them  alone,  and  not  make  their  country 
the  theatre  of  a  war,  which  must  ruin  them." — "But 
the  empress  Queen  refused  to  defend  the  Electo- 
rate. True,  she  alleged  her  own  danger,  and  there- 
fore she  increased  that  danger." — "  Does  he  then 
supply  our  army  with  troops  ? " — "  But  is  he  not  a 
man  of  great  abilities  ?  Doubtless  he  is  so ;  and 
one  of  the  clearest  proofs  of  it  is  his  obliging  us  to 
pay  him  six  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  pounds 
for  nothing.     In  that  respect  he    is    certainly  the 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  95 

greatest  prince  ever  known  to  Britain  before." — 
"  But  he  is  certainly  a  very  great  prince.  So  we 
read  in  our  papers  about  three  hundred  times  a 
year." — "  But  the  truth  is,  all  the  diversion,  which 
Britain  can  make  to  France  in  Germany,  is  by 
sending  fewer  troops,  at  double  the  expense,  to  act 
against  a  greater  number  of  the  French.  Thus  it 
has  been  every  year  of  the  war  hitherto,  and  thus  it 
will  continue." 

Junius.  "But  after  all.  Sir,  where  is  the  injury? 
You  assure  me,  that  my  logic  is  puerile  and  tinsel." 
— "  But,  it  seems,  1  have  outraged  the  feelings  of  a 
father's  heart. — Am  I  indeed  so  injudicious?" — 
"  What  then,  my  lord  ?  Is  this  the  event  of  all  the 
sacrifices  you  have  made  to  lord  Bute's  patronage, 
and  to  your  own  unfortunate  ambition  ? " — "  After 
all.  Sir,  to  what  kind  of  disavowal  has  the  king  of 
Spain  at  last  consented?" — ''Who  attacks  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press  ? — Lord  Mansfield. — Who  invades 
the  constitutional  power  of  juries  ? — Lord  Mans- 
field."— "  You  ask  me.  What  juryman  was  chal- 
lenged by  lord  Mansfield  ? — I  tell  you,  his  name  is 
Benson." — "  But,  it  seems,  '  the  liberty  of  the  press 
may  be  abused,  and  the  abuse  of  a  valuable  privi- 
lege is  the  certain  means  to  lose  it.'  The  first  I 
admit." — "  But  I  could  venture,  for  the  experi- 
ment's sake,  even  to  give  this  writer  the  utmost  he 


96  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

asks." — "  But  I  have  a  charge  of  a  heavier  nature 
against  Sir  William  Draper.  He  tells  us,"  &lc. — 
"  Has  this  gentleman  heen  called  to  a  court  martial 
to  answer  for  his  conduct  ?  No.  Has  it  been  cen- 
sured ?  No." — "  Will  your  majesty  interfere  in  a 
question,  in  which  you  have  properly  no  immediate 
concern  ^  It  would  be  a  step  equally  odious  and 
unnecessary.  Shall  the  lords  be  called  upon  to  de- 
termine the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  commons  ? — 
They  cannot  do  it  without  a  flagrant  breach  of  the 
constitution." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Argument  from   the    Comparison    of   the    "  Reply 

to  BurgoyneJ'^ 

In  the  year  1779  there  was  published  in  London 
a  pamphlet  in  46  pages,  entitled — "  A  Reply  to 
Lieutenant  General  Burgoyne's  Letter  to  his  Con- 
stituents.— Expende  Hannibalem.  Juv." — As  an 
inquiry  was  made  in  parliament  concerning  Bur- 
goyne's campaign,  and  as  he  endeavored  to  throw 
the  blame  of  its  failure  on  lord  Sackville,  whose  in- 
structions, as  he  maintained,  he  followed,  it  is  evi- 
dent, that  Sackville  was  the  person  most  interested 
in  defending  the  Secretary  for  the  American  de- 
partment and  in  endeavoring  to  beat  down  the  de- 
fence of  general  Burgoyne.  The  pamphlet  is  also 
written  in  such  a  cool  and  dignified  manner,  with 
such  pretensions  to  candor,  as  betrays  its  author- 
ship. Its  correspondence  in  style  with  the  '  Consid- 
erations '  on  the  German  war  is  another  proof,  that  it 
came  from  the  pen  of  Sackville.  Believing  it  can- 
not be  made  a  question,  that  this  was  his  produc- 

9 


98  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

tion,  I  shall  endeavor  to  prove,  that  it  bears  the  very- 
features  of  Junius. 

I  shall  first  present  a  few  words  and  phrases,  such 
as  are  common  in  Junius,  or  peculiar  to  him. 

Reply.  "  Difficulties  were  crowding  upon  you 
no  less  formidable,  than  numerous." — "  /  confess,  I 
am  ignorant  of  the  mode  of  justification." — "  /  con- 
fess, that  were  I  an  elector  of  Preston,  I  should 
entertain  strong  doubts." — "  As  this  is  impractica- 

hU:' ''  Surely'' "  True'' "It  is    true"— 

"  Really." 

"  Positive  and  precise  as  the  oracle  of  Delphos, 
you  pronounce  upon  the  plans  and  principles  of  min- 
isters ;  upon,  the  wrongs  of  injured  merit ;  upon  the 
dreadful  situation  of  public  affairs." 

"  You  sate  out  with  stating,  that,"  &z:c. 

"  Your  authority  cannot  have  that  weight  upon 
the  present  occasion,  which  upon  all  other  occasions 
it  is  justly  entitled  to." 

"  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  opinion,  &ic.  you  still  con- 
tinue," &iC. 

"  You  complain  very  bitterly  of  the  Court  eti- 
quette, invented,  you  allege,  ujjoii  your  occasion, 
which  excluded  you  from  the  royal  presence." — 
''  If  he  wished  to  have  suppressed  your  information, 
whether  he  took  the  means,"  he. — "  Your  informa- 
tion, it  is  true,  would  be   immediately  told  in  the 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  99 

royal    ear." — "  He    could  not  imagine,  that    your 
facts  would  be  weakened." 

"  I  will  prove,  that  to  have  granted  it  to  you 
would  have  been  folly  and  injustice." 

The  author  of  the  Reply  usually  writes  in  the 
first  person  singular  :  in  the  following  sentence  he 
falls  into  the  ministerial  manner  of  the  plural.  "  If 
you  tell  us,  that  it  is  the  privilege  of  anger  to  rail, 
we  will  agree  with  you,  that  it  is  a  privilege,  which 
anger  too  frequently  assumes ;  but  if  you  mean  se- 
riously to  bring  forward  these  charges,  you  must 
support  them  with  other  evidence  than  your  own." 
The  spirit  of  the  latter  part  of  the  sentence  proves  a 
personal  interest  on  the  part  of  the  writer. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  Reply,  a  very  ingenious 
parallel  is  instituted  between  Marcus  Attilius  Regulus 
and  lieutenant  general  Burgoyne.  Tt  concludes 
with  saying,  in  reference  to  Burgoyne's  letter, — 
"  This  letter  was  received  with  a  difference  of  opin- 
ion. Some  thought  it  a  patheUc  representation  of 
unnecessary  severity  ;  some  considered  it  as  a  justi- 
fication of  his  conduct ;  and  there  were  not  wanting 
some  who  pronounced  it  a  libel  upon  the  king's 

GOVERNMENT." 

Reply.  "  We  admire  the  morality  of  the  senti- 
ment, and  only  lament,  that  it  should  be  so  little 
observed." — "  Whatever  may  have   been  the  con- 


100  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

duct  of  Ministers,  you  stand  alike  with  them  before 
the  tribunal  of  the  public,  and  it  is  not  by  the  accu- 
sation of  others,  that  you  will  be  permitted  to  justify 
yourself." — "  This  country  has  seen  commanders 
whom  Ministers,  in  vain,  would  have  labored  to  dis- 
grace ;  whom  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  calumny 
to  defame ;  whom  it  was  not  within  the  reach  of 
malice  to  hurt. — Instead  of  depending  for  their 
lustre  upon  Ministers,  they  reflected  glory  upon  Ad- 
ministration."— "  The  truly  great  commander  rests 
not  upon  such  uncertain  grounds.  He  lays  in  a 
stock  of  reputation,  which  a  legion  of  pilferers  may 
labor  in  vain  to  diminish ;  and,  secure  in  the  opinion 
of  his  country,  he  sets  at  defiance  both  the  insidious 
whisper,  and  the  professed  attack." — "  The  mob 
form  their  opinion  of  an  orator  from  the  strength  of 
his  lungs,  and  the  muscle  of  his  arm.  Noisy  vo- 
ciferation and  vehement  gesture  pass  with  them 
for  the  warmth  of  conviction  and  the  authority  of 
truth." — "  In  order  to  induce  our  belief  of  an  im- 
probable circumstance  with  regard  to  you,  you  tell 
us  first  to  believe  it  of  five  hundred  others  ;  as  if 
incredulity  decreased,  in  proportion  as  the  improb- 
able verges  towards  the  marvellous." — "  The  same 
mark  of  distinction  may  be  conferred  upon  one, 
v/ho,  under  your  circumstances,  will  not  observe 
your  conduct  5   who  being  equally  unfortunate  will 


>  >      i         J    J 


<    ■>     ■)■> 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  101 


not  be  equally  upright." — "  It  was  easier  for  a 
whole  people  to  be  treacherous,  than  for  Regulus 
to  be  false.  He  knew  the  punishment,  that  awaited 
him  at  Carthage  :  but  stern  and  inflexible,  he  pre- 
ferred his  duty  to  his  safety  ;  and  his  countenance, 
which  upon  his  arrival  expressed  a  thousand  mixed 
emotions,  was  serene  and  settled  at  his  departure." 
— "  This  charge,  therefore,  does  not  appear  to  have 
any  foundation  in  iruth  ;  and  certainly  it  has  none 
in  reason.^'' — "  While  his  rank  would  secure  him 
respect,  the  consideration  that  he  was  called  to  that 
rank  from  an  opinion  of  his  abilities,  would  give 
hope  to  his  troops,  and  confidence  to  his  country." 
— "  Tliey  gave  freedom  to  your  tongue  in  the  sen- 
ate, but  not  liberty  to  your  arm  in  the  field  ;  and  it 
would  have  been  neither  honorable  in  you  to  have 
drawn  your  sword,  nor  in  this  country  to  have  ac- 
cepted of  your  services." — "  I  shall  now.  Sir,  take 
my  leave  of  you  with  a  very  sincere  wish,  that  your 
retreat  from  the  public  service  may  appease  the 
malice  of  your  enemies,  and  that  your  retirement 
may  be  undisturbed  by  reproach." 

I  flatter  myself,  that  no  one  can  read  these  ex- 
tracts from  the  Reply  to  Burgoyne,  without  recog- 
nising the  author  of  Junius  and  the  author  of  Con- 
siderations on  the  German  War.  It  may  indeed  be 
said,  that  the  Reply  was  written  six  years  after  the 

9^ 


102  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

letters  of  Junius,  and  that  Sackville,  the  author  of  it, 
might  have  imitated  the  manner  of  Junius.  But  I 
think  no  one  will  confide  in  such  a  suggestion,  who 
considers,  that  Sackville,  when  the  letters  of  Junius 
were  finished,  was  fifty-six  years  of  age,  and  that 
long  before  that  period  his  style  of  writing,  whatever 
it  was,  must  in  its  great  characteristics  have  been 
fixed  and  unalterable.  In  1779,  when  he  had  reach- 
ed his  first  grand  climacteric,  he  was  not  likely  to  be 
employed  in  the  study  of  Junius  as  a  model  of  com- 
position.    If  not  an  imitator,  he  is  the  original. 

We  have  thus  seen  a  strong  resemblance,  inexpli- 
cable except  from  the  identity  of  the  authors,  be- 
tween the  style  of  Junius  and  that  of  Sackville  in  his 
writings  both  before  and  after  Junius.  Our  persua- 
sion of  this  identity  will,  I  think,  be  confirmed  by 
the  perusal  of  tlie  following  extracts  from  the 
Speeches  and  Letters  of  lord  Sackville,  which  are 
stamped  with  the  style  and  spirit  of  Junius. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Argument  from  the  Comparison  of  the  Speeches  and 
Letters  of  Sackville, 

Sackville.  "I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for 
your  letter ;  though  ivrote  to  me  in  English,  it  must 
have  been,"  &:c.  Letter,  1745.  "I  should  have 
wrote  to  you  sooner,"  he.     Letter,  1748. 

Junius.  "  The  letters  of  your  masterly  corre- 
spondent Lucius  have  drove  his  lordship."  Cleo- 
phas,  September,  1768. 

Sackville.  1770.  ^^  Mark,  how  he  is  every 
day  and  every  hour  pointed  out  in  print,  &c.  No 
epithet  is  too  bad  for  him." 

Junius  to  Garrick,  1771.  "  Now  mai^k  rae,  vag- 
abond. Keep  to  your  pantomimes,  or,  be  assured, 
you  shall  hear  of  it." 

Sackville.  "  Remote,  as  it  is,  from  those,  I  am 
used  to  live  with,  and  different  as  the  country  and 
climate  are  from  those  I  might  expect  to  be  ?'n." — 
"  Such  is  the  climate,  that  we  are  sending  our  troops 
^0." — '"  If  he  did  not  like  the  quarters  the  regiment 
was  ordered  ^o." — "  It  is  a  fault  I   am  not  often 


104  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

guilty  o/"." — "  Inconveniences,  which  an  alteration  of 
any  standing  law  may  be  attended  ?mVA." — "  What  a 
nonplus  might  a  colonel  be  put  /o,  when  his  regi- 
ment was  just  going  to  be  reviewed." — "  Such  de- 
mands, I  believe,  very  few  colonels  would  be  able  to 
comply  with.'''' — "  Superior  to  those  we  may  now 
meet  them  with.^^ 

Junius.  "  As  much  as  you  are  equal  ^o." — 
"  Battles,  which  he  might  have  been  engaged  in, 
and  the  dangers,"  he. — "  Would  have  known  what 
they  had  to  trust  to,  and  would  never,"  he. 

Sackville.  January,  1770.  "  The  freedom  of 
election  is  the  sacred  palladium  of  English  liberty." 

Junius.  Dedication,  ]  772.  "  The  liberty  of  the 
press  is  the  palladium,''''  he. 

Sackville.  1748.  "We  have  had  no  letters 
from  Holland  for  some  days,  so  we  do  not  know," 
&£c. — "  A  long  time  before  1  can  have  the  pleasure 
of  being  taken  measure  of  by  him  ;  so,  if  you  please, 
do  not  wait  for  me." 

Junius.  "  I  have  no  doubt  of  what  you  say 
about  David  Garrick  ;  so  drop  the  note."—"  And  so 
direct  to  Mr.  John  Fretly." 

Sackville.  "  Supported  the  ministry  in  the 
address  to  the  king  ;  so  that  Mr.  Hume  Campbell," 
he, — "  Such  as   a  rich  wife,  large  legacy,  or  the 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


105 


like  ;  so  that  even  this  bill  passed  into  law,"  he, — 
The  same  phrase  is  often  used  by  Sackville. 

Junius.  "  Until  they  should  be  demanded  by 
the  civil  power  ;  so  that,  while  the  officers,"  he. — 
"  He  warned  them  to  hold  up  and  inhance  the 
price  ;  so  that  the  plan  of  reducing,"  he, 

Sackville.  1770.  "  Adviseable  to  screen  him 
behind  the  curtain  of  a  majority." 

Junius.     "  Which    you    endeavor    to   screen  by 

suddenly    dropping,"    he, "  Who    screened  lord 

Mansfield?" 

Sackville.  1781.  "  Although  insinuations  had 
been  thrown  out  with  respect  to  the  past,"  he, 

Junius.     "  Deceived  by  the  appearances  thrown 

out    by    your    grace." "  Fallacious   insinuations 

thrown  out  by  men,"  he. 

Sackville.  1779.  "  He  despised  that  honor- 
able member,  but  would  level  himself  with  his 
wretched  character  and  malice." — "  Perish  in  the 
tumult  with  honester  men." 

Junius.  "  That  Swinney  is  a  ivreiched  but  a 
dangerous  fool." — "  The  tvretched  conduct  of  the 
ministry." — "  This  Scsevola  is  the  wretchedest  of  all 
fools,  and  dirty  knave." 

Sackville.  "  Suppose  the  allegation  true,  yet 
stUl  it  can  be  here  no  reasonable  objection." — "  A 


106  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

body  of  men  interested  to  support  them  ;  yet  still 
the  force  of  truth  finally  surmounts  the  obstacle." 

Junius.  In  letter  of  Veteran. — "  Yet  still,  some 
of  them,  though  in  your  wise  opinion  not  qualified  to 
command,  are  entitled  to  respect." — "  Still  however 
your  opinions,"  &ic. 

Sackville.  January,  1770.  ''And  though  his 
Majesty,  in  the  generous,  unsuspecting  frankness  of 
his  nature,  may  not  perceive  to  what  an  unhappy 
catastrophe  the  perfidy  of  his  ministers  may  lead, 
yet  surely  it  is  the  duty  of  his  parliament  to  guard 
him  against  the  insidious  artifices  of  those,  who  hav- 
ing rendered  themselves  odious  by  their  conduct, 

h^Ve  nothing  more  to  do,  but  to  render  themselves 
secure  by  their  cunning." 

Junius.  August,  1770.  "As  for  you,  my  lord, 
who  perhaps  are  no  more  than  the  blind,  unhappy 
instrument  of  lord  Bute  and  her  royal  highness,  the 
Princess  of  Wales,  be  assured,  that  you  shall  be 
called  upon  to  answer  for  the  advice,  which  has 
been  given,  and  either  discover  your  accomplices  or 
fall  a  sacrifice  to  their  security." 

"  Their  constituents  would  have  a  better  opinion 
of  their  candor,  and,  I  promise  you,  not  a  worse 
opinion  of  their  integrity." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Concluding  Remarks, 


If,  as  I  trust  has  been  proved,  Sackville  be  the 
author  of  the  letters  of  Junius,  he  deserves  to  be  re- 
membered, not  as  a  great  benefactor  of  the  human 
race,  but  as  a  bold,  keen,  malignant  accuser  of  his 
brethren,  who  has  taught  multitudes  to  shoot  from  a 
dark  corner  the  arrows  of  destruction  and  slander. 
He  has  probably  had  more  admirers  and  imitators, 
than  any  political  writer  w^hatever.  Warm  partizans 
aim  to  wield  the  bow  of  Junius  ;  and  we  have  seen 
truth  and  charity  falling  in  the  streets.  If  we  should 
for  a  moment  study  the  grand  features  of  Christian 
goodness, — the  meekness,  the  humility,  the  forbear- 
ance, the  ardent  benevolence,  which  beam  forth  in 
the  countenance  of  the  disciple  of  Jesus, — and  then 
contemplate  the  dark,  malignant  visage  of  Junius, 
the  stern  pride,  the  irrepressible  disdain,  the  deep 
hostility,  the  unsated  revenge,  the  barbarous  ferocity, 
by  which  he  is  marked, — we  shall  see  somewhat  of 
the  difference  between  an  angel  of  light  and  a  fallen 
spirit  of  evil. 


108  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

The  general  admiration  of  Junius  by  our  country- 
men is  greatly  to  be  deplored,  inasmuch  as  it  tends 
to  foster  the  malignant  passions  of  the  human  heart, 
and  to  introduce  into  the  political  disputes  of  brethren 
all  the  ferocity,  which  in  Junius  is  to  be  traced  to 
the  indignation  of  a  degraded  soldier  and  the  deter- 
mined ambition,  which  builds  its  structure  on  the 
ruins,  it  has  created. 

Sackville's  whole  life,  after  the  dishonor  of  his 
court  martial,  was  a  hfe  of  imposture.  He  perpetu- 
ally wore  a  mask.  He  shrouded  himself  in  dark- 
ness. His  real  aims  were  never  avowed  ;  and  the 
measures,  adopted  for  obtaining  those  ends,  were 
secret  and  mysterious.  When  there  was  wanting 
the  consciousness  of  sincerity  and  of  love  to  truth, 
his  support  even  of  correct  principles  loses  its  value. 
In  considering  some  of  the  sentiments  of  Junius  as 
coming  from  the  haughty,  imperious  minister  of 
George  III,  I  cannot  avoid  thinking  of  commenda- 
tions of  chastity  from  the  lips  of  a  libertine.  I  ask 
for  republican  principles  only  from  a  real  republi- 
can, and  not  from  a  devoted  servant  of  royalty.  I 
will  accept  however  from  Lord  Sackville  his  de- 
scription of  the  characters  and  manners  of  the  illus- 
trious nobles  of  Great  Britain.  He  knew  them 
well ;  and  speaking  from  intimate  acquaintance  he 
carries  conviction  to  the  mind. 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  109 

Happy  will  it  be  for  Americans,  who  have  the 
privilege  of  electing  their  own  rulers,  if  they  commit 
power  only  to  the  hands  of  the  virtuous  ;  if  they 
never  by  their  suffrages  elevate  to  high  dignity  and 
wide  influence  men,  whose  hands  are  red  with 
crime,  and  whose  examples  will  shed  a  pestilence 
through  the  land.  Without  private,  how  can  we 
expect  public  virtue  ?  The  unplumed  eagle,  though 
we  place  him  among  the  stars,  will  yet  sink  to  the 
ground. 

Of  the  irritable  temper  and  proud,  indignant  feel- 
ings of  lord  Sackville,  perfectly  according  with  the 
character  of  Junius,  there   is  very  ample  evidence. 

In  1770  lord  Sackville  made  a  motion  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  which  Governor  John- 
stone, in  reply,  remarked,  "  that  he  wondered  that 
noble  lord  should  interest  himself  so  deeply  in  the 
honor  of  his  country,  when  he  had  hitherto  been  so 
regardless  of  his  own."  In  consequence  Sackville 
challenged  and  fought  him  with  pistols. 

After  the  capture  of  Burgoyne  a  motion  was  made 
in  parliament  to  inquire  into  the  convention  of  Sara- 
toga. In  the  debate  Mr.  Luttrell  alluded  to  the 
censure  of  the  court  martial  on  lord  Sackville, — 
who  replied — '•'  that  he  never  was  personal  in  the 
house  to  any  one ;  never,  by  any  conduct  of  his, 
merited  such  an  attack ;  he  despised  ihat  honorable 

10 


110  ~  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

member,  but  would  level  himself  with  his  wretched 
character  and  malice  ;  old  as  he  was,  he  would  meet 
that  fighting  gentleman  and  be  revenged."  The 
house  was  thrown  into  confusion.  It  was  with  great 
difficulty,  that  lord  George  was  induced  to  acknowl- 
edge his  irregularity  and  to  make  an  apology. 

Mr.  Burke  said  in  a  speech  May  6,  1779,  con- 
cerning lord  North, — "  He  is  sometimes  more  angry, 
than  his  noble  friend  (lord  George  Sackvilie,)  and 
when  he  pleases,  he  can  be  almost  as  witty." 

In  a  debate  at  the  opening  of  parliament  in  1780, 
after  a  speech  by  Mr.  Fox,  lord  Sackvilie  said — 
"  as  the  honorable  gentleman,  in  the  course  of  his 
speech,  had  thought  proper  to  throw  out  allusions, 
which  he  could  not  but  see  were  directed  at  him, 
the  house  might  possibly  expect,  that  he  should 
make  some  reply  ;  he  rose  therefore,  to  say,  once  for 
all,  that  whenever  gentlemen  chose  to  descend  to  the 
meanness  of  dealing  in  personal  invectives,  and  to 
single  him  out  as  their  object,  he  was  prepared  to 
treat  the  invectives  and  the  author  of  them  with  the 
contempt  they  deserved." 

Mr.  Cumberland  says — '*  The  well  known  cir- 
cumstance, that  occurred  upon  his  elevation  to  the 
peerage,  made  a  deep  and  painful  impression  on  his 
feeling  mind  ;  and  if  his  seeming  patience  under 
the  infliction  of  it  should  appear  to  merit,  in  a  moral 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  Ill 

sense,  the  name  of  virtue,  I  must  candidly  acknowl- 
edge it  as  a  virtue,  that  he  had  no  title  to  be  credit- 
ed for,  inasmuch  as  it  was  entirely  owing  to  the  in- 
fluence of  some,  who  overruled  his  propensities,  that 
he  did  not  betake  himself  to  the  same  abrupt,  un- 
warrantable mode  of  dismissing  this  insult,  as  he 
had  resorted  to  in  a  former  instance."  Cumberland 
then  states,  that  Sackville  had  prepared  an  invitation, 
and  was  about  to  send  it  by  Sir  Edward  Sackville, 
when  the  remonstrances  of  lord  Amherst  and  other 
friends  put  him  by  from  his  resolve.  He  also  re- 
marks— "  Many  men,  in  other  respects  wise  and 
just  and  temperate,  not  having  the  resolution  to  be 
right  in  their  own  consciences,  have  set  aside  both 
reason  and  religion,  and  in  compliance  with  the 
evil  practice  of  the  world  about  them,  performed 
their  bloody  sacrifices,  and  immolated  human  victims 
to  the  idol  of  false  honor." 

It  is  a  melancholy  consideration,  that  at  the  age 
of  sixty-six  he  should  thus  have  resolved  on  a  duel 
with  the  marquis  of  Carmarthen.  We  see  how  em- 
bittered were  those  honors,  for  the  attainment  of 
which  he  had  toiled  so  long  and  so  incessantly,  and 
the  attainment  of  which  he  survived  only  three 
short  years.  Had  the  same  mental  effort  and  the 
same  unwearied  industry,  instead  of  being  wasted  in 
political  controversy,  or  prostituted  to  the  indulgence 


112  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

of  personal  animosities,  or  degraded  by  subserviency 
to  ambitious  views,  been  employed  in  the  noble  pur- 
suits of  virtue  and  religion  ;  Sackville  would  have 
received  from  the  king  of  heaven  an  unwithering 
crown  of  righteousness.  He  gained  the  title  of 
Viscount  and  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Peers  j  but  he 
did  not  gain  tranquillity  and  repose.  He  will  have, 
as  I  believe,  the  mingled  credit  and  infamy  of  being 
the  author  of  the  letters  of  Junius ;  and  the  undivid- 
ed reproach  of  employing  the  American  savages  as 
instruments  of  terror  and  of  carnage  in  conducting 
the  American  war.  While  the  war-whoop  and  the 
scalping-knife  are  remembered,  the  "  perishable  in- 
famy "  of  his  name  shall  be  kept  alive. 

To  my  mind  there  is  something  very  impressive 
and  monitory  in  the  death  of  Sackville.  I  cannot 
apply   to    him     the    words   of    the    poet   of   the 

grave : — 

"  Sure  the  last  end 
Of  the  good  man  is  peace.     How  calm  his  exit ! 
Night  dews  fall  not  more  gently  to  the  ground, 
Nor  weary,  worn-out  winds  expire  more  soft. 
Behold  him  !  in  the  evening-tide  of  life, 
A  life  well  spent,  whose  early  care  it  was. 
His  riper  years  should  not  upbraid  his  green ; 
By  unperceived  degrees  he  wears  away  ; 
Yet,  hke  the  sun,  seems  larger  at  his  setting  1" 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 


113 


Almost  the  whole  life  of  Sackville  was  a  perpetual 
combat,  a  struggle  for  office  and  for  the  honors  de- 
rived from  royal  friendship.  After  possessing  those 
honors  for  two  or  three  short  years  he  found  him- 
self sinking  into  the  grave.  It  is  an  interesting  in- 
quiry, what  was  the  foundation  of  his  hopes  in  regard 
to  a  future  world.  He  believed  the  christian  reli- 
gion. Among  its  requisitions  he  knew  was  the  de- 
mand of  forgiveness  of  injuries  and  reconciliation  to 
an  injured  brother.  This  world  was  fading  away 
from  his  sight,  and  the  future  was  rising  upon  his 
vision.  After  a  great  struggle  he  brought  his  mind 
to  the  point  of  forgiving  one,  who  had  deeply 
wounded  his  pride,  and  whom  a  few  years  before 
he  had  resolved  to  fight.  Whether  this  was  real 
christian  charity  and  noble  benevolence,  I  will  not  un- 
dertake to  say.  This  interview  with  lord  Mansfield, 
wiiom  he  had  injured,  has  been  already  described. 
A  short  time  before  he  expired,  he  said  to  Mr. 
Cumberland,  his  secretary, — pressing  his  hand — 
•'  You  see  me  now  in  those  moments,  when  no  dis- 
guise wnll  serve,  and  when  the  spirit  of  a  man  must 
be  proved.  I  have  a  mind  perfectly  resigned,  and 
at  peace  within  itself.  I  have  done  with  this  world, 
and  wiiat  I  have  done  in  it  I  have  done  for  the  best ; 
I  hope  and  trust,  1  am  prepared  for  the  next.  Tell 
not  me  of  all,  that  passes  in  health  and  pride  of  heart ; 

10* 


114  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

these  are  the  moments,  in  which  a  man  must  be 
searched  ;  and  remember,  that  I  die,  as  you  see 
me,  with  a  tranquil  conscience  and  content." 

Mr.  Cumberland  also  says — "  I  never  heard,  that 
my  friend,  lord  George  Germain,  was  amongst  the 
suspected  authors  of  Junius,  till  by  way  of  jest  he 
told  me  so  not  many  days  before  his  death  :  I  did 
not  want  him  to  disavow  it,  for  there  could  be  no 
occasion  to  disprove  an  absolute  impossibility.  The 
man,  who  wrote  it,  had  a  savage  heart,  for  some  of 
his  attacks  are  execrable :  he  was  a  hypocrite,  for  he 
disavows  private  motives,  and  makes  pretensions  to 
a  patriotic  spirit." 

If  Cumberland  is  right  in  his  estimate  of  Junius, 
and  if  Sackville  was  Junius;  then,  what  he  had  done 
in  the  world,  he  had  not  "  done  for  the  best." 
Were  his  "hypocrisy  and  execrable  attacks"  for  the 
best?  Was  the  duel  with  Johnstone  for  the  best? 
And  was  the  later  projected  duel  for  the  best  ?  It 
ill  becomes  a  man  to  utter  the  language  of  Sackville, 
unless  he  approaches  the  disinterested  benevolence, 
strong  faith,  and  ardent  devotion  of  St.  Paul.  I 
deem  it  no  breach  of  charity  to  assert,  that,  if  in  the 
review  of  his  past  life  Sackville's  conscience  was 
tranquil ;  yet  there  was  no  reason  for  the  tranquilli- 
ty. To  a  great  offender  I  would  not  deny  the  pos- 
sibility of  dying  in  peace  and  even  in  triumph,  pro- 


JUNIUS    UNaiASKED.  115 

vided,  that  with  a  penitent  spirit  and  the  love  of 
holiness  he,  even  in  his  last  hours,  confides  in  the 
mercy  of  the  Savior,  that  he  may  ,be  "  justified  by 
faith  in  Christ,"  and  find  "  redemption  through  his 
blood."  But  he  must  come  with  the  temper  of  the 
publican,  saying,  "  God,  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sin- 
ner ! "  and  not  in  the  boastful  confidence  of  a  proud 
pharisee.  I  recollect,  that  Rousseau,  steeped  in 
crime,  declared,  that  he  would  go  before  the  throne 
of  God  and  demand  heaven  as  the  reward  of  his 
virtue. 

There  is  truth  in  the  following  remarks  of  Adam 
Smith  in  the  first  edition  of  his  Theory  of  Moral 
Sentiments,  though  afterwards,  as  he  approached  the 
faith  of  Rousseau  or  imbibed  the  miserable  skepti- 
cism of  Hume,  he  expunged  them,  as  if  he  too 
intended  to  demand  heaven  as  the  reward  of  his 
moral  excellence,  instead  of  imploring  eternal  life  as 
the  gift  of  mercy  through  Jesus  Christ,  "  the  propi- 
tiation for  the  sins  of  the  world." 

"  If  we  consult  our  natural  sentiments,  we  are  apt 
to  fear,  lest  before  the  holiness  of  God  vice  should 
appear  more  worthy  of  punishment,  than  the  weak- 
ness and  imperfection  of  human  nature  can  ever 
seem  to  be  of  reward.  Man,  when  about  to  appear 
before  a  being  of  infinite  perfection,  can  feel  but 
little  confidence  in  his  own  merit,  or  in  the  imper- 


116  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

feet  propriety  of  his  own  conduct.  In  the  presence 
of  his  fellow  creatures  he  may  often  justly  elevate 
himself,  and  may  often  have  reason  to  think  highly 
of  his  own  character  and  conduct,  compared  to  the 
still  greater  imperfection  of  theirs.  But  the  case  is 
quite  different,  when  about  to  appear  before  his  infi- 
nite Creator.  To  such  a  being  he  can  scarcely 
imagine,  that  his  littleness  and  weakness  should 
ever  seem  to  be  the  proper  object  either  of  esteem 
or  reward.  But  he  can  easily  conceive,  how  the 
numberless  violations  of  dut}^,  of  which  he  has  been 
guilty,  should  render  him  the  object  of  aversion  and 
punishment.  Neither  can  he  see  any  reason,  why 
the  divine  indignation  should  not  be  let  loose,  with- 
out any  restraint,  upon  so  vile  an  insect,  as,  he  is 
sensible,  that  he  himself  must  appear  to  be.  If  he 
w^ould  still  hope  for  happiness,  he  is  conscious,  that 
he  cannot  demand  it  from  the  justice,  but  that  he 
must  entreat  it  from  the  mercy  of  God.  Repent- 
ance, sorrow,  humiliation,  contrition  at  the  thought 
of  his  past  conduct  are,  upon  this  account,  the  senti- 
ments, which  become  him,  and  seem  to  be  the  only 
means,  which  he  has  left  for  appeasing  that  wrath, 
which,  he  knows,  he  has  justly  provoked.  He  even 
distrusts  the  efficacy  of  all  these,  and  naturally  fears, 
lest  the  wisdom  of  God  should  not,  like  the  weak- 
ness of  man,  be  prevailed  upon  to  spare  the  crime 


JUNIUS    UNMASKED.  117 

by  the  most  importunate  lamentations  of  the  crim- 
inal. Some  other  intercession,  some  other  sacrifice, 
some  other  atonement,  he  imagines,  must  be  made 
for  him,  beyond  what  he  himself  is  capable  of  mak- 
ing, before  the  purity  of  the  divine  justice  can  be 
reconciled  to  his  manifest  offences." 

These  are  indeed  the  natural  sentiments  of  man- 
kind, as  is  proved  by  the  history  of  the  world.  For 
the  removal  of  these  fears  and  anxieties  the  Gospel 
discloses  an  expiation,  atonement,  sacrifice,  made  by 
Jesus  Christ  in  his  death  upon  the  cross.  But  here 
another  error  is  to  be  guarded  against,  as  fatal  as 
that  of  rejecting  the  method  of  redemption  by  the 
Savior's  blood ;  and  that  is,  the  hope  of  being  saved 
by  that  expiation  and  sacrifice,  in  some  mysterious 
manner,  by  a  kind  of  extreme  unction,  by  a  late 
participation  of  the  Lord's  supper,  by  the  efficacy  of 
some  religious  rite,  without  feeling  towards  Jesus 
Christ  the  real  Sentiments  of  admiration,  gratitude, 
love,  and  fahh,  which  the  Gospel  exacts  ;  without 
taking  him  as  a  Teacher  and  Master,  whose  moral 
precepts  are  to  be  obeyed,  as  well  as  a  Sacrifice  for 
the  sins,  that  are  past,  and  a  Refuge  in  that  solemn 
hour,  when  human  pride  has  reason  to  tremble.  If 
the  approach  of  death  tries  the  spirit  and  courage  of 
a  man ;  yet  in  the  solemn  moments,  which  precede 
dissolution,  no  tranquillity  is  to  be  desired,  unless  it 


118  JUNIUS    UNMASKED. 

be  a  tranquillity,  which  will  abide  after  death. 
There  is  a  sweet  calmness  at  the  close  of  a  sum- 
mer's day,  when  all  nature  smiles  upon  the  beholder 
and  gives  him  the  promise  of  a  bright  and  glorious 
morning  : — there  is  also  a  portentous  calmness, 
which  precedes  the  shock  of  the  earthquake,  and  is 
followed  by  tumult  and  desolation. 


APPENDIX. 

I.   The    "  History  of  the  Reign  of  George  IIV^ 
written  by  the  Author  of  Junius, 

There  was  published  at  London  in  1770  a  work, 
entitled,  "  The  History  of  the  Reign  of  George  III. 
to  the  Conclusion  of  the  Session  of  Parliament  end- 
ing in  May,  1770,  to  which  is  prefixed  a  Review  of 
the  late  War,"  a  considerable  work  of  more  than 
400  pages,  '  printed  for  the  Author,  and  sold  by  T. 
Evans.'    This  book,  being  one  of  the  books  in  my 
library,  I  had  the  curiosity  to  examine,  in  order  to 
see,  if  it  was  not  free  from  the  peculiarities  of  style, 
which  I  supposed  I  had  discovered  in  Junius ;  for  I 
had   been   accustomed  to  regard  it  as   a  work  of 
Burke.     Being  written  or  at  least  published  at  the 
very  time,  when  the  letters  of  Junius  were  coming 
out,  and  discussing  the  same  subjects,  treated  of  in 
those  letters,  if  the  work,  as  I  expected,  should  not 
exhibit  the  characteristics,  which  seemed  to  be  com- 
mon to  the  "  Considerations"  on  the  German  War 
and  to  the  Letters  of  Junius ;  then  it  would  strength- 
en my  conclusion,  that  the  author  of  the  Considera- 


120  APPENDIX. 

tions  and  of  the  Letters  was  the  same.  But  to  my 
surprise  I  found  in  the  History  the  same  peculiari- 
ties. Here  then  my  theory  was  in  danger  of  being 
nipped  in  the  bud.  My  difficulties  however  were 
soon  removed  by  discovering,  that  the  History  was 
7iot  written,  as  I  had  erroneously  believed,  by 
Burke.  It  is  not  contained  in  his  works  ;  it  is  not 
mentioned  in  his  life ;  I  know  not,  that  it  was  ever 
ascribed  to  him ;  and  there  is  no  reason  to  regard  it 
as  his  production.  Indeed  Bur  Ice,  in  one  of  his 
Speeches,  speaks  of  this  work  as  an  "  everlasting 
monument  of  the  folly,  incapacity,  and  pernicious 
politics  of  our  late  and  present  ministers."  The 
suggestion  instantly  occurred  to  me,  that  it  was  a 
production  of  lord  George  Sackville,  the  author  of 
Junius.  Of  this  fact  my  conviction  has  been  strength- 
ened by  careful  examination.  The  grounds  of  my 
persuasion  I  will  now  exhibit. 

I  have  already  stated  the  frequent  use  of  the  word 
formidable  in  Junius  and  in  the  Considerations.  It 
is  also  habitually  employed  by  the  author  of  the 
History. — I  will  present  a  few  instances.  "  Look- 
ing on  France  as  the  most  constant  and  most  formi- 
dable enemy  of  this  kingdom." — "  Rendered  him- 
self formidable  to  Walpole  and  his  venal  depend- 
ents."— "  Overawed  by  a  confederacy  the  most 
formidable,  that  the  world  had  ever  seen." — "  He 


APPENDIX 


121 


became  more  and  more  formidable  every  day." 
— "  An  army,  that  was  in  the  morning  so  great  and 
formidable.'''' — "  In  order  to  fight  an  army  still  more 
formidable.'''' — "  Made  the  enemy  soon  feel,  that 
they  were  still  more  formidahle.'^ — "  The  French 
power,  which  was  more  formidable  than  any  Na- 
bob."— "  Reason  to  apprehend,  that  each  of  these 
formidable  powders  would  become  still  more  formi- 
dable by  an  accession  of  French  territory." 

When  it  is  considered,  that  the  above  instances 
occur  in  about  20  pages,  no  one  will  question  the 
fondness  of  the  writer  for  the  word.  It  is  true,  that 
in  Dr.  Johnson's  False  Alarm,  and  in  his  Thoughts 
concerning  the  Falkland  Islands,  written  in  1770 
and  1771,  and  containing  SO  pages,  the  word  formi- 
dable occurs  three  or  four  times  ;  but  I  am  not 
aware,  that  he  often  uses  the  word  in  his  writings. 
Besides,  this  circumstance  is  to  be  considered  in 
combination  with  other  circumstances,  and  not  as  a 
solitary  argument. 

The  phrase,  '  Be  it  so,^  has  been  exhibited  both 
in  the  Considerations  and  in  Junius.  It  is  also 
found  in  the  History  : — "  But  he  must,  forsooth,  be 
considered  as  the  great  protector  of  the  reformed 
religion.  Be  it  so  ;  while  his  writings  testify  how 
little  he  values  any  religion." — Now  this  is  a  re- 
markable phrasCo     I  doubt  whether  it  can  be  found 

11 


122  APPENDIX. 

in  all  the  writings  of  Dr.  Johnson.  I  have  noticed 
it,  however,  once  or  twice  in  the  writings  of  Burke. 
The  phrase,  in  effect,  is  by  no  means  common  in 
the  writers  of  the  period  referred  to.  It  occurs 
often  in  Junius ;  as,  "  They,  in  effect,  gave  up  that 
constitutional  check." — "  In  effect  he  has  contrived 
to  make  it  the  interest  of  the  proprietor." — "  When 
you  invade  the  province  of  the  jury,  in  matter  of 
libel,  you,  in  effect,  attack  the  liberty  of  the 
press." — "  For,  in  effect,  both  objects  have  been 
equally  sacrificed." — "  That  greater  abilities  would 
not,  in  effect,  be  an  impediment  to  a  design." — 
"  The  form  of  the  constitution  leaves  rather  more 
than  enough  to  the  popular  branch  ;  while,  in  effect, 
the  manners  of  the  people,"  &:c. — "  Shortening  the 
duration  of  parliaments  (which,  in  effect,  is  keeping 
the  representative  under  the  rod  of  the  constitu- 
ent.)"— The  letter,  in  which  the  two  first  instances 
are  found,  was  written  at  the  end  of  May,  1770,  at 
the  very  time,  when  the  writer  of  the  History  was 
engaged  in  his  work,  which  was  reviewed  in  Sep- 
tember of  that  year.  In  the  History  the  same 
phrase  presents  itself : — "  The  resolution  does,  in 
effect,  aflirm,  that  all  men  without  exception,"  &lc. — 
*^  And,  in  effect,  they  retreated  as  far  as  Lands- 
perg." 


APPENDIX. 


123 


The  phrase,  Yet  still,  is  an  uncommon  one.  I 
suspect  it  is  seldom  used,  except  by  writers  educat- 
ed in  Ireland.  It  is  about  as  good,  as  '  Yet  yet,^  or 
^  JYotwithstanding  notwithstanding.^  It  is  not  in- 
deed found  in  the  Letters  under  the  signature  of 
Junius ;  but  the  same  writer  assumed  the  name  of 
Veteran,  as  Woodfall  has  shown.  In  Veteran's  let- 
ter to  lord  Barrington  of  January  28,  1772,  is  the 
following  sentence — "  Yet  still  some  of  them,  though 
in  your  wise  opinion  not  qualified  to  command,  are 
entitled  to  respect." 

The  same  phrase  is  often  found  in  the  History  : 
— "  Yet  still  it  was  necessary,  that  he  should  act." 
— "  Yet  still  his  coffers  remained  empty." — "  Yet 
still  the  ministry  weathered  the  storm." — "  Yet  still, 
finding  a  resource  in  his  own  steadiness  and  cour- 
age, he  resolved  not  to  fall  in  an  inglorious  man- 
ner."— "  Yet  still  no  flag  of  truce  was  hung  out 
upon  the  walls." — "  Yet  still,  thougli  that  was  the 
object  of  his  last  movement,  he  could  not  prevent," 
&c. — "  Yet  still  the  majority  of  the  lower  house 
was  obsequious." — "  Yet  still,  the  comparison  will 
not  hold." 

In  a  speech  of  lord  Sackville  February,  1772,  in 
the  House  of  Commons  I  find  the  following  : — 
"  Suppose  the   allegation   true,   yet  still  it  can  be 


124  APPENDIX. 

here  no  reasonable  objection." — Also,  ^^yet  still  the 
force  of  truth  finally  surmounts  every  obstacle." 

I  have  met  with  this  phrase  once  in  Francis'  De- 
mosthenes,— a  work,  which  I  doubt  not  was  much 
studied  by  lord  Sackville ;  Dr.  Francis  lived  in  Ire- 
land till,  I  believe,  1750. 

1  proceed  to  another  remarkable  phrase,  found 
both  in  Junius  and  in  the  History. 

Junius.  May  1769.  "  There  is  something  in 
both,  which  distinguishes  you,  not  only  from  all 
other  ministers,  but  all  other  men.  It  is  not,  that 
you  do  wrong  by  design,  but  that  you  should  never 
do  right  by  mistake.  It  is  not,  that  your  indolence 
and  your  activity  have  been  equally  misapplied,  but 
that,"  &c. — Also  October  1769; — "If  these  gen- 
tlemen were  better  soldiers,  I  am  sure  they  would 
be  better  subjects.  It  is  not,  that  there  is  any  in- 
ternal vice  or  defect  in  the  profession  itself,  but  that 
it  is  the  spirit,"  he. 

History.  "  It  is  not,  that  we  think  it  unexcep- 
tionable in  this  respect :  on  the  contrary." — "  It  is 
not,  that  the  commons  did  not  claim  the  sole  right." 
— "  It  is  not,  that  the  writer  is  conscious  of  any 
blameable  partiality." — "  It  is  not,  that  there  was 
not  a  numerous  division  against  them  on  this  occa- 
sion. It  was  indeed  so  considerable,"  &tc. — "  It  is 
not,  that  the  ministerial  advocates  had  not  on  this 


APPENDIX. 


125 


occasion  many  arguments,  or  rather  sophisms  to  ad- 
vance in  support  of  this  decision." — "  It  is  not,  that 
their  numbers  were  not  sufficiently  great,  and  their 
inclinations  good." — "  It  is  not,  that  the  people  are 
averse  to  pay  off  the  debts  of  the  crown.  Show, 
that  they  were  fairly  contracted,  and  they  will  not 


murmur." 


The  History  was  published  in  the  summer  of 
1770,  and  the  letters  of  Junius,  above  quoted,  were 
written  in  1769. 

I  do  not  recollect,  that  I  ever  met  with  the  phrase 
^ It  is  not,  that^  in  any  book  whatever,  except  in 
Junius  and  in  the  History  of  the  reign  of  George 
III. ;  and  also  twice  in  a  work  of  Burke,  written  in 
1791.  Burke  may  have  adopted  it  from  Junius. 
These  instances  are  as  follows  : — "  It  is  not,  that  I 
consider,"  Sic. — "  It  is  not,  that  as  this  strange  se- 
ries, &;c. — I  have  not  indulged,"  he. 

Junius.  "  With  what  color  of  truth  can  he  pre- 
tend."— "  Neither  can  it  be  said,  with  any  color  of 
truth,  to  be,"  he. — "  For  the  rest,  there  is  no  color 
of  palliation  or  excuse." — "  Every  color,  every 
character  became  you." — '^  When  his  character  and 
conduct  are  frequently  held  forth  in  odious  or  con- 
temptible colors.^^ — "  Not  to  furnish  any  color  or 
pretence  for  violating  or  evading." — "  Defy  him  to 
fix  any  colorable  charge  of  inconsistency  upon  me." 

11^ 


126  APPENDIX. 

In  all  these  instances  the  letters  were  written  after 
the  publication  of  the  History. 

History.  "  Under  color  of  a  judicial  proceed- 
ing."— "With  what  co/or  of  justice  can  you  take  the 
affair  under  your  own  cognizance?" — "  Under  color 
of  censuring  certain  obnoxious  parts." — "  The  fol- 
lowing arguments  were  the  colorable  pretexts  for 
this  vote." 

Junius.  "  In  spite  of  this  evidence, — in  defiance 
of  the  representations." — "  In  spite  of  all  your 
grace's  ingenuity." 

History.  "  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  these  untoward 
circumstances." — "  In  spite  of  all  the  obstacles." — 
"  Chatham,  it  is  true,  exerted  himself,  in  spite  of 
age  and  infirmity,  with  all  the  fire  of  youth." — Thus 
frequently. 

Junius.  "  Beyond  which  they  would  scruple  to 
proceed." — "  You  affected  to  have  scruples.'^'' — ■"  I 
will  not  scruple  to  say,  that  the  very  being  of  that 
law." — "  I  do  not  scruple  to  affirm,  with  tlie  most 
solemn  appeal." — "  As  to  the  game  laws,  he  never 
scrupled  to  declare  his  opinion." 

History.  "  Many  made  no  scruple  of  retiring  to 
dinner,  when  the  most  material  evidences  were  ex- 
amined." 

Junius.  "  In  the  name  of  decency  and  common 
sense,  what  are  your  grace's  merits?"  This  was 
written  after  the  History. 


APPENDIX.  1^ 

History.  "  If  this  be  not  the  case,  why,  in 
the  name  of  wonder,  were  the  three  estates  consti- 
tuted ? " 

Junius  has  been  already  quoted,  as  using  the 
phrase  go  a  length,  he. 

History.  "  The  offence  is  carried  to  the  utmost 
length.'^'' — '^  They  proceeded  to  an  unjustifiable  length 
in  attacking,"  &:c. 

Junius.  "  To  pronounce  fairly  upon  their  con- 
duct, it  was  necessary." — (May  28,  1770.) — "  We 
may  safely  pronounce,  that  a  conjuncture,"  &ic. — 
1771. 

History.  "  To  sit  in  judgment  on  all  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  and  to  pronounce  upon  the 
choice." 

Junius.     "  At  a  most  unseasonable /wwc^Mre." 

History.  "  If  they  went  astray  at  that  junc- 
ture,''^— "  On  whose  concord  and  unanimity  the 
safety  of  the  nation  at  this  juncture  depends." — 
"  We  ought  to  interfere  at  this/wnc^wre." 

Junius.  "  Which  you  endeavor  to  screen  by  sud- 
denly dropping  your  prosecution." — "  Who  screened 
lord  Mansfield  ? " 

History.  "  In  screening  the  earl  of  Orford  from 
public  justice." — "It  was  made  indeed  not  to  screen 
criminals." — "  A  treasurer  screens  him  by  issuing 
illegal  warrants." 


128  APPENDIX. 

Junius.  Having  sold  the  nation  to  you  in  gross, 
they  will  undoubtedly  protect  you  in  the  detail,^^ 

History.  "  Which  should  never  have  been 
touched  but  in  the  gross  ;  because  the  purchase  of 
it  thus  in  the  detail  warns  the  public  creditors,"  &;c. 

Junius.  March,  1770.  "  When  his  Majesty 
had  done  reading  his  speech  the  lord  mayor,  &ic. 
had  the  honor  of  kissing  his  Majesty's  hand  :  after 
which,  as  they  were  withdrawing,  his  Majesty  in- 
stantly turned  round  to  his  courtiers,  and  burst  out  a 
laughing. — JYero  fiddled,  while  Rome  was  burning, 
John  Horne.^^ 

History.  "  After  the  citizens  had  kissed  his 
hand,  and  were  retiring,  he  instantly  turned  round  to 
his  courtiers,  and  burst  out  a  laughing :  a  circum- 
stance, which  made  the  people  recollect,  that  JVero 
fiddled,  when  he  had  set  Rome  onfireJ'^ 

Junius.  "  I  know  you  both — and  the  people  of 
England  shall  know  you  as  well  as  I  do^ — "  That 
great  lawyer,  that  honest  man,  saw  your  whole  con- 
duct in  the  light,  that  /  do^ — "  Done  their  duty  to 
the  public  with  the  same  zeal  and  perseverance, 
that  i  did,  I  will  not  assert,  that  government  would 
have  recovered  its  dignity." — "  You  feel,  as  you 
ought  to  do,  for  the  reputation  of  your  friend." 

History.  "  Some  do,  and  are  not  exempted." 
— "Ventured   no   farther,  than  the  members  fre- 


APPENDIX.  129 

quently  do  in  parliament." — "A  person  of  sense 
will  pin  his  faith  upon  the  sleeve  of  no  man  :  yet 
this  is  what  the  supporters  of  the  commission  Jo." 

Junius.  "  They  would  have  it  understood,  that 
they  did  their  duty  completely  in  confining  a  Ser- 
jeant and  four  private  soldiers,  until  they  should  be 
demanded  by  the  civil  power  5  so  that,  while  the  of- 
ficers, who  ordered  or  permitted  the  thing  to  be 
done,"  &ic. — "  Has  warned  them  to  hold  up  and 
enhance  the  price  ; — so  that  the  plan  of  reducing," 
&c. 

History.  "  They  had  used  to  sell  them  adul- 
terated rum,  and  to  decoy  their  children  away  into 
slavery.  So  that,  when  they  built  a  fort,"  Sic. — 
"  So  that,  the  ministry,  who  were  not  free  from  the 
general  contagion  of  fear,"  Sic. — "  In  consequence 
of  this  declaration  the  courts  of  London  and  Berlin 
came  to  an  eclaircissement,  and  matters  were  soon 
explained  ;  so  that  a  treaty,  which  had  the  peace  of 
Germany  for  its  sole  object,  was  framed." — "  Re- 
solved with  great  prudence  to  return  without  mak- 
ing any  attempt  ^  so  that  this  great  and  expensive 
armament,"  &ic. — '^  Left  his  retreat  unmolested  ;  so 
that,  to  all  irue  judges  of  merit,  he  appeared  as 
great  in  his  defeat  as  in  the  most  brilliant  of  his  vic- 
tories."— "  But  while  he  pursued  the  fugitives,  fresh 


130  APPENDIX. 

troops  pressed  upon  his  rear ;  so  that  he  was  con- 
tinually harassed." 

Lord  Sackville,  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of 
Commons; — "Let  it  be  which  of  them  you  will, 
the  same  cause,  that  made  him  enlist,  will  make 
him  continue  in  the  army  as  long  as  he  can,  unless 
he  meets  with  some  extraordinary  good  fortune, 
such  as  a  rich  wife,  large  legacy,  or  the  like  ;  so 
that  even  this  bill,  passed  into  law,  as  it  would  pro- 
duce no  alteration  in  the  nature  of  mankind,  recruit- 
ing would  remain  as  difficult  and  expensive,  as  it 
is  now." 

Lord  Sackville,  it  seems,  early  employed  the 
word  so  in  a  peculiar  way.  Thus  in  his  letter  to 
major  Younge,  January,  1748 — "  There  are  so  ma- 
ny general  officers  want  to  employ  the  boot-maker 
in  Pall  Mall,  that  I  fear  it  will  be  a  long  time,  before 
I  can  have  the  pleasure  of  being  taken  measure  of 
by  him  ;  so,  if  you  please,  do  not  wait  for  me,"  &;c. 
— "  We  have  had  no  letters  from  Holland  for  some 
days,  so  we  do  not  know,  whether  the  French  have 
attempted  any  thing." 

Junius.  "You  seem  to  have  dropped  the  affair; 
so  let  it  rest." 

Even  in  1745  Sackville  wrote — "  The  opposition 
began  to  look  big,  but  Mr.  Pitt,  Mr.  Littleton,  the 
Grenvilles,  and  several  others,  instead  of  joining  in 


\ 


APPENDIX. 


131 


it,  as  it  was  imagined  they  intended,  supported  the 
ministry  in  the  address  to  the  king ;  so  that  Mr. 
Hume  Campbell,  Sir  Watkin  Williams,  he.  were 
the  only  persons,  that  gave  any  obstruction  to  what 
was  proposed." 

It  is  doubtful  whether  a  sentence  thus  construct- 
ed, in  the  use  of  so  that,  can  be  found  in  all  the 
writings  of  Johnson. 

Junius.     "  Our  dearest  interests  are  at  stake J^^ 

HisTOKY.  "  If  their  property  were  at  stake,  they 
would  prefer  to  the  judicature  of  the  commons  a 
jury  of  porters,  chairmen,  or  even  pickpockets." — 
"  When  their  fundamental  liberties  were  at  stake, 
they  would  hear  of  no  equivalent." — "  The  despe- 
rate bravery  of  men,  who  knew  their  lives  to  be  at 
stake.'''' 

Junius.  1769.  "  The  people  are  seldom  wrong 
in  their  opinions  ;  in  their  sentiments  they  are  never 
mistaken." 

History.  "  Their  [the  populace]  intention  is 
always  good,  and  1  believe  it  will  be  hard  to  find  an 
instance  in  history,  where  they  exercised  their  au- 
thority  but  in  opposition  to  injustice    and    oppres- 


5J 

sion. 


Junius.    "  Instead  of  striking  one  decisive  blow." 
History.     "  The  war  with  Spain  made  it  neces- 
sary to  strike  some  blow,  which  might  check  her 


132  APPENDIX. 

pride  and  presumption." — "  The  ministry  would  not 
delay  so  mortal  a  blow  for  a  moment." — "  They  re- 
ceived another  blow." 

Junius.  "  Outraged  and  oppressed  as  we  are, 
this  nation  will  not  bear,"  &ic. — "  Recovered  from 
the  errors  of  his  youth,  &;c.  behold  him." — "Touch- 
ed with  your  generosity,  I  freely  forgive  the  excess- 
es, into  which  it  has  led  you." — "  Unacquainted 
with  the  vain  impertinence  of  forms,  he  would  deliv- 
er his  sentiments  with  dignity  and  firmness." — "  An- 
imated by  the  favor  of  the  people,  &ic.,  his  views 
and  sentiments  changed  with  his  situation." — "Vers- 
ed, as  your  Majesty  undoubtedly  is,  in  the  English 
history,  it  cannot  easily  escape  you." — "  Accustom- 
ed to  the  language  of  courtiers,  you  measure  their 
affections,"  he. — "  Grateful,  as  I  am,  to  the  Good 
Being,  &lc.,  I  hold  myself." — "  Dictated  by  the 
same  spirit,  they  deserve  the  same  attention."- — 
"  Struck  by  the  principal  figure,  we  do  not  suffi- 
ciently mark  in  what  manner  the  canvass  is  filled 
up,"  &ic. 

History.  "  Satisfied  with  having  rendered,  &:c., 
he  left  count  Dohna  with  a  small  army." — "  Filled 
with  these  generous  sentiments,  he  sought  every  op- 
portunity of  engaging  the  enemies." — "  Sunk  thus 
into  want  and  impotence,  he  commenced  various 
negotiations." — "  Besieged   rather   than   engaged  ; 


APPENDIX. 


133 


attacked  without  interruption,  and  without  decision  ; 
capable  neither  to  advance  nor  retreat,  they  saw  noth- 
ing before  them  but  the  melancholy  prospect  of  crum- 
bling away  by  degrees,  and  perishing  without  re- 
venge, without  honor  in  those  dreadful  forests." — 
"  Baffled  in  all  his  milhary  schemes,  Sujah  Doula 
formed  a  resolution  worthy  of  the  spirit,"  &ic. — 
"  Ignorant,  that  the  riot  act  had  been  read,  the  mul- 
titude increased." — "  Unsupported  by  any  personal 
connections,  he  triumphed  over  the  whole  power  of 
the  court." — "  Hurried  on  by  their  zeal,  they  did 
not  see,  that  justice  always  attends  the  victor  and  is 
measured  by  his  sword  :  the  event  being  the  sole 
criterion,  that  determines  on  which  side  loyalty  or 
rebellion  He.  Influenced  by  passion  more  than  by 
prudence,  they  did  not  perceive,"  &:c. — "  Deeply 
affected  by  the  tragedy  of  the  preceding  night,  the 
principal  inhabitants  held  a  town  meeting." — 
"  Overawed  by  the  people,  whose  idol  he  was, — 
they  had  not  courage,"  &ic. — "  Roused  with  indigo 
nation  at  such  unworthy  treatment,  the  injured 
Wilkes  immediately  renounced,  and  exposed  the 
duplicity  and  hollowness  of  his  heart  to  the  scorn 
and  detestation  of  the  whole  nation." — "  Heated  by 
mutual  commotion,  they  proceeded  to  the  most 
enormous  excesses." — "  Blessed  with  concord  at 
home,  and  victory  abroad,  it  saw  its  trade  and  influ- 

12 


134  APPENDIX. 

ence  extended  beyond  the  example  of  any  former 
period." 

In  respect  to  this  construction  of  a  sentence  I 
think  Mr.  Burke  differs  from  Junius.  In  his  elo- 
quent and  long  speech  on  American  Taxation  in 
1774,  there  are  but  one  or  two  instances,  and  not 
more  than  two  or  three,  as  I  believe,  in  his  Reflec- 
tions on  the  Revolution  in  France.  This  is  not 
then  a  peculiarity  in  his  style,  as  it  is  in  that  of  Ju- 
nius. Indeed,  in  his  learned  Essay  on  the  Sublime 
and  Beautiful,  written  before  the  letters  of  Junius, 
there  is  not,  I  believe,  in  the  whole  volume  one  in- 
stance of  a  sentence,  constructed  like  those  now  un- 
der consideration. 

The  sarcastic  manner,  in  which  the  writer  of  this 
history  speaks  of  general  Abercrombie,  indicates  a 
personal  pique  : — "  Two  thousand  men  were  miss- 
ing. Another  officer  would  upon  the  arrival  of  his 
artillery  have  led  such  a  superior  force  again  to  the 
charge  ;  but  this  prudent  gentleman  gained,  on  the 
very  evening  of  the  action,  his  former  camp  to  the 
southward  of  Lake  George.  So  much  for  Aber- 
crombie's  generalship  ! " — The  indignant  feelings  of 
Sackville  can  be  accounted  for,  when  it  is  recollect- 
ed, that  Abercrombie  was  one  of  the  officers,  consti- 
tuting the  Court  for  the  trial  of  Sackville  in  1 760.  I 
think  no  one,  undertaking  to  write  an  Impartial  his- 


APPENDIX.  135 

toiy,  could,  without  the  influence  of  personal  feel- 
ings, have  uttered  the  words — "  So  much  for  Jlher- 
crombie's  generalshijp ! " 

It  may  strengthen  the  proofs  brought  forward  to 
consider  the  points  of  resemblance  between  the  Re- 
ply to  Burgoyne,  evidently  a  production  of  lord 
Sackville,  and  '  The  History  of  the  Reign  of  George 
III.'  I  find  in  those  works  one  mode  of  expression, 
which  I  have  never  elsewhere  met  with,  excepting 
once  in  a  speech  ascribed  to  Mr.  Wilkes,  May  5, 
1763;  and  that,  I  am  persuaded,  was  sent  to  the 
press  by  Sackville,  the  author  of  the  North  Briton. 

History.  "  Was  ever  independent  Majesty  af- 
fronted with  a  proposition  of  such  arrogance  and 
despotism?" — "All  these  circumstances  rushed  upon 
the  mind,  and  forced  it  to  form  conclusions  not  very 
favorable  to  Majesty.'''' 

Reply.  "  That  I  may  not  violate  that  respect, 
which  I  feel  for  Majesty,  I  will  not  be  so  arrogant  as 
to  enquire  upon  what  grounds,  it  is  probable,  that  the 
royal  judgment  was  formed." 

The  Speech  of  Mr.  Wilkes.  "  Throw  every 
odious  charge  from  themselves  upon  Majesty,'''' 
This  speech  was  published  in  St.  James  Chronicle 
May  5,  1763,  introduced  thus — "  It  is  said,  the  fol- 
lowing speech."  In  Chronicle,  May  24,  are  twenty 
Queries,  relating  to  the  General  Warrant,  &;c.  which 


f.\ 


136  APPENDIX. 

surely  Wilkes  never  wrote.     In  that  I  find  the  ex- 
pression— "  the  sacred  dignity  of  Royalty.^'' 

History.  "  We  will  be  ruined,  it  seems,  by 
victories,  as  well  as  defeats  ;  we  will  be  a  singular 
example,"  &c. — will  for  shall,  being  a  tinge  of  the 
Irish. 

Reply.  "If  you  tell  us,  that  it  is  the  privilege  of 
anger  to  rail,  we  ivill  agree  with  you,"  &ic. 

The  following  points  of  resemblance  have  oc- 
curred between  the  Considerations  and  the  Reign  of 
George  III. 

Considerations.  "  That  Britain  should  thus 
move  heaven  and  earth  and  risk  every  danger  to  pre- 
vent it." 

History.  "  Would  return  to  their  respective 
constituents,  and  in  moving  heaven  and  earth  to  gain 
their  election  would  augment  the  ill  humor,  which  is 
already  too  prevalent.     337. 

Considerations.  "  They  are  driven  out  of 
Germany.     Be  it  so^     S3. 

History.     "  But  he  must,  forsooth,  be  consider- 
ed as  the  great  protector  of  the  reformed  religion.' 
Be  it  so:'     104. 

Considerations.  Who  would  emhroil  the  Elec- 
torate with  the  Empire." — 59.  "Raised  him  up  to 
embroil  one  part  of  Germany." — 72.  "  And  em- 
broilino;  our  allies."     97. 


APPENDIX. 


137 


History.  "  Whose  highest  wish,  at  present,  was 
to  embroil  the  empire." — "  The  embroiled  state  of 
their  affairs." 

Considerations.  "  JS'ot  to  mention,  that  in  the 
present  case  it  seems  to  be  exhausting."  &lc.     135. 

History.  "  JVot  to  mention  the  privilege  of 
parliament,  which  was  flagrantly  violated."     171. 

Considerations.  "Employed  in  enabling  those, 
who  should  be  our  allies,  to  cut  each  other'^s  throats  ; 
and  it  is  right,  for  this  only  reason,  that  Britain  must 
have  its  continental  connections."     118. 

History.  "The  ruffian  ordered  the  Indians  un- 
der his  command  to  cut  their  throats." 

I  am  aware  it  may  be  said,  that  if  Sackville  was 
the  author  of  the  History  of  the  Reign  of  George 
III.,  he  would  not  have  censured  himself  in  speak- 
ing of  the  battle  of  Minden.  Let  us  examine  his 
words : — "  Six  British  regiments  with  the  Hanoveri- 
an guards  gained  the  battle  of  Minden.  Seeing  their 
center  discomfited,  and  their  right  making  no  im- 
pression on  Wangenheim,  they  thought  of  nothing 
but  a  retreat.  At  this  critical  moment  had  lord 
Sackville  according  to  orders  poured  in  his  cavalry 
upon  the  dismayed  French,  they  would  in  all  proba- 
bility have  been  left  without  an  army  in  Germany. 
By  some  unaccountable  fatality  he  did  not  execute 
this  essential  service,  and  missed  a  fair  opportunity 

12^ 


*». 


138  APPENDIX. 

of  being  ranked  with  the  Marlboroughs  and  Bruns- 
wicks."     p.  57. 

On  the  supposition,  that  Sackville  was  the  author 
of  this  book,  which  was  written  with  precisely  the 
object  of  Junius, — that  of  overthrowing  the  minis- 
try,— it  was  important,  that  Sackville  should  keep 
concealed.  If  he  should  apparently  censure  him- 
self, he  would  not  be  suspected.  Yet  what  is  the 
amount  of  this  censure?  A  court  martial  had  ten 
years  before  decided,  that  he  had  disobeyed  orders. 
But  even  this  is  not  allowed  by  the  historian  ;  and 
the  affair  is  left  in  the  darkness  of  "  some  unaccount- 
able fatality."  Had  it  not  been  for  this,  Sackville 
might  have  been  ranked  with  Marlborough !  Surely 
this  is  not  severe  rebuke.  It  is  no  more,  than  might 
be  expected  to  be  said  by  Sackville,  if  Sackville  was 
the  historian. 

That  he  was,  is  confirmed  by  several  circumstan- 
*  ces.  If  Burke  was  the  writer,  why  should  he  seek 
concealment  ?  The  motives  of  Sackville  are  obvi- 
ous. He  wished  to  displace  the  obstacles  to  his 
own  advancement,  and  at  the  same  time  not  to 
create  enemies,  who  would  prevent  it.  It  was  ne- 
cessary then  to  shoot  his  arrows  from  an  unseen 
place. 

The  writer  says  in  the  preface — "  Unconnected 
mill  any  party,  he  has  given  vent  to  the  spontaneous 


APPENDIX.  139 

dictates  of  his  heart."  Who  could  say  this  so  truly 
as  Sackville  ?  He  was  operating  only  for  himself. 
Yet  almost  his  last  words  in  the  book,  showing  his 
aim  in  writing  it,  are — "  Before  all  is  lost,  let  us  act 
with  vigor  and  bring  home  the  charge  to  individu- 
als 5    LET  us  IMPEACH  THE  GUILTY  MINISTERS." 

The  follovi^ing  is  an  extraordinary  sentence  in  the 
preface.  "  The  character  and  conduct  of  our  late 
ministers  have  been  such,  that  a  man  of  any  feeling, 
or  soul,  can  hardly  contain  his  indignation.  The 
compiler  of  these  pages  confesses,  that  in  suppressing 
many  reflections  upon  them,  he  has  done  violence 
to  his  own  nature.  Had  he  not  considered  what 
was  due  to  his  own  character,  more  than  what  their 
measures  deserved,  he  would  have  painted  them  in 
stronger  colors.  Instead  of  complaining  of  his  as- 
perity, they  ought  to  thank  him  for  his  lenity." 

Now,  if  the  anonymous  historian  was  an  untitled, 
literary  drudge,  who  intended  to  keep  in  conceal- 
ment ;  is  it  conceivable,  that  he  would  speak  in  this 
manner  ?  Are  there  not  here  indications  of  a  man 
of  rank  and  eminence, — regarding  himself  as  on  a 
level  with  the  king's  ministers  or  superior  to  them  ; 
— a  man  of  strong  passions,  inflamed  with  bitter 
hostility,  yet  pretending  to  be  under  the  restraints, 
which  every  gentleman  imposes  upon  himself  ?  Do 
not  all  these  traits  belong  to  lord  Sackville  ? 


140  APPENDIX. 

It  is  not  a  consideration  to  be  utterly  neglected  in 
this  survey  of  circumstantial  evidence,  that  in  the 
title  page  is  a  long  quotation  from  Tacitus,  and  in 
the  book  various  classical  allusions.  Junius  also 
quotes  this  writer  and  says — "  The  text  is  in  Taci- 
tus— you  best  know  where  to  look  for  the  com- 
mentary."— The  author  of  the  Considerations  also 
quotes  Cicero  and  Seneca. 

In  respect  to  the  sentiments  of  the  Historian  of 
the  Reign  of  George  III.,  they  correspond  with  the 
sentiments  of  Junius  and  of  the  author  of  the  Con- 
siderations. He  was  evidently  opposed  to  German 
connexions  and  to  a  continental  war.  He  had  no 
regard  for  the  Scotch.  He  says — "  It  is  certain, 
that  one  may  live  for  years  in  Scotland  without 
hearing  the  word  liberty  pronounced  by  the  popu- 
lace." He  supports  Wilkes,  on  public  reasons,  and 
blames  Chatham  for  abandoning  him.  In  short,  the 
sentiments  of  the  book  are  those  of  Junius,  and  such 
as  are  suitable  to  lord  Sackville. 

I  must  confess,  that  I  do  not  find  in  the  History 
such  an  accordance  with  Junius,  as  I  expected,  in 
the  use  of  the  preposition  and  conjunction  after  a 
verb  and  at  the  close  of  a  sentence.  Possibly 
the  publisher  may  have  removed  such  imperfec- 
tions, as  he  might  deem  them,  or  the  inspector  of 
the  press  might  have  interposed  in  such  slight  chan- 


APPENDIX.  141 

ges.  I  find  however  the  following  — "  Is  not  then 
every  member  of  parliament,  who  has  committed, 
who  is  falsely  accused  o/*,  these  acts." — "  They 
were  50." — "  This  house  has  done  so  in  former 
instances." — "  If  the  disgrace,  which  ensues,  be  not 
thought  an  adequate  punishment,  we  presume  the 
majority  will  allow  the  expense  of  a  second  election 
is  50." — "  At  this  rate,  were  the  house  to  resolve, 
that  London  has  no  right  to  send  four  members  to 
parliament,  and  then  to  declare,  that  this  was  law ; 
it  must  be  50." 


II.     Junius  the  Author  of  "  The  JVorth  Briton. ^^ 

The  first  number  of  the  celebrated  political  pa- 
per, ^  The  North  Briton,'  was  published  June  5, 
1762;  the  last,  the  number  45,  was  published  April 
23,  1763.  There  was  however  a  solitary  number, 
12  November.  The  publisher  was  Mr.  George 
Kearsly,  London.  For  suspicion  of  being  the  au- 
thor of  number  45,  containing  keen  remarks  on  the 
King's  speech,  a  General  Warrant  was  issued  against 
Mr.  Wilkes,  which  led  to  the  great  discussion  con- 
cerning General  Warrants.  On  the  ground  of  priv- 
ilege, as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  Mr. 
Wilkes  escaped,  by  decision  of  chief  justice  Pratt, 
afterwards  lord  Camden  ;  but  for  setting  up  a  press 
in  his  own  house  at  a  subsequent  period,  and  re- 
printing the  obnoxious  number,  he  was  prosecuted 
and  had  a  sentence  of  outlawry  passed  against  him, 
as  he  had  fled  to  France. 

That  Junius,  or  lord  Sackville,  was  the  author  of 
'  The  North  Briton,'  and  particularly  of  No.  45,  is, 
in  my  judgment,  for  reasons  which  I  shall  allege  and 


APPENDIX.  143 

submit  to  the  judgment  of  others,  placed  beyond  a 
doubt. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  no  evidence,  that  Mr. 
Wilkes  ever  publicly  claimed  to  be  the  author  of  the 
North  Briton.  It  has  been  considered  as  a  work, 
written  by  various  hands,  or  by  a  club  of  politicians. 
The  Editor  of  the  Letters  to  and  from  Mr.  Wilkes, 
]  769,  says — *'  Some  of  the  numbers  have  been  as- 
cribed to  Mr.  Wilkes,  others  to  Mr.  Churchill,  and 
Mr.  Lloyd."  I  am  satisfied,  that  neither  of  these 
gentlemen  wrote  any  part  of  the  w^ork,  unless  per- 
haps Mr.  Wilkes  was  the  writer  of  a  solitary  com- 
munication, not  the  number  45. 

Mr.  Wilkes  was  not  the  author  of  the  North 
Briton.  The  author,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Wilkes, 
inserted  his  letter  to  Dr.  Burton,  and  the  answer,  in 
No.  2],  but  would  not  insert  other  letters,  which 
Mr.  Wilkes  wished  to  have  inserted.  That  number 
begins  thus, — "  As  the  attack,  w^hich  was  made  on 
the  30th  of  September  by  my  good  friend  the  Au- 
ditor, on  a  Gentleman  of  knoivn  reputation  [Mr. 
Wilkes],  took  its  rise  entirely  from  a  supposition  of 
that  Gentleman's  being  concerned  in  this  paper, — 
we  think  it  our  duty  to  take  every  occasion,  which 
offers,  of  giving  the  injured  party  the  most  public 
opportunities  of  vindicating  his  innocence,"  he. 


144  APPENDIX. 

This  number  was  published  November  23.  Ear- 
ly in  the  preceding  month  Mr.  Wilkes  had  fought  a 
duel,  of  which  the  following  is  the  history. 

In  the  North  Briton,  No.  12,  published  August 
21 J  lord  Talbot  was  exposed  to  derision,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  he  challenged  Mr.  Wilkes.  This 
circumstance  may  account  for  the  friendship  of  Ju- 
nius, if  Junius  was  Sackville,  to  Mr.  Wilkes.  The 
writer  said — "  Not  only  real  services,  but  every 
species  of  elegance  and  refinement  in  the  polite  arts 
may,  I  think,  without  censure,  be  rewarded  with  a 
pension.  A  politeness  equal  to  that  of  lord  Talbot's 
— Jwrse,  ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed.  At  the  coro- 
nation he  paid  a  new,  and,  for  a  horse,  singular  re- 
spect to  his  sovereign.  I  appeal  to  applauding  mul- 
titudes, who  were  so  charmed,  as  to  forget  every 
rule  of  decency,  and  to  clap  even  in  the  royal  pres- 
ence, whether  his  or  his  lord^s  dexterity  on  that  day 
did  not  surpass  any  courtiers.  Caligula's  hoi'se  had 
not  half  the  merit.  We  remember  how  nobly  he 
was  provided  for." 

Now  this  was  a  circumstance,  to  which  Mr. 
Wilkes  would  not  have  been  likely  to  attach  any 
importance,  but  which  one,  conversant  with  eti- 
quette, like  Sackville,  would  have  seized  upon. 
Talbot,  having  heard,  that  Wilkes  had  claimed  to 
be  one  of  the  writers  of  the  North  Briton,  required 


APPENDIX.  145 

him  to  acknowledge  or  disclaim  the  offensive  paper. 
He  refused  to  do  either,  saying,  "  I  must  first  insist 
on  knowing  your  lordship's  right  to  catechise  me 
about  an  anonymous  paper." 

At  the  time  the  paper  w^as  published,  Mr.  Wilkes 
was  at  Winchester,  sixty  miles  from  London.  He 
was  also  there,  when  several  subsequent  numbers 
were  published.  There  is  no  reason  to  think,  that 
a  man  of  pleasure  and  business  could  find  leisure 
for  writing  the  North  Briton  every  week.  In  his 
letter  to  Talbot,  dated  Winchester,  September  21, 
he  says — "  You  are  pleased  to  say,  that  it  is  my  own 
declaration  before  men  of  truth  and  honor,  that  I 
occasionally  assisted  the  paper,  called  the  North 
Briton.  I  wish  your  lordship  had  been  more  expli- 
cit, and  had  mentioned  the  name  of  any  one  gentle- 
man, before  whom  I  made  that  declaration.  Was  it 
made  in  public  ?  or  was  it  in  private  conversation  ?  " 
— "  I  intend  to  make  a  tour  on  Thursday  (23d)  to 
the  Isle  of  Wight." 

I  am  persuaded,  the  fact  is,  as  the  appearance 
seems  to  be,  that  Mr.  Wilkes  had  boasted  of  what 
was  not  true, — of  being  a  contributor  to  the  North 
Briton.  In  this  dilemma  I  believe  he  the  next  day 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  the  author  of  the  North  Brit- 
on, dated  September  22,  signed  William  Temple, 
and  which  the  author  says  he  received  from  Trow- 

13 


146  APPENDIX. 

bridge  in  Wiltshire,  a  place,  which  Mr.  Wilkes 
might  have  taken  in  his  tour.  This  was  published 
in  No.  19,  and  would  enable  Mr.  Wilkes  to  say 
what  he  could  not  say  before,  that  he  was  a  contrib- 
utor. The  letter  is  not  in  the  style  of  the  North 
Briton,  though  commended  by  the  author  as  glow- 
ing "  throughout  with  the  true  spirit  of  liberty."  As 
Wilkes  had  fought  a  duel  between  the  writing  and 
the  publication  of  it,  on  account  of  the  North  Brit- 
on, the  author  w^ould  naturally  praise  him.  Another 
circumstance  is  w^orth  consideration.  To  this  num- 
ber there  is  appended  a  letter  from  Mr.  Wilkes  him- 
self, asserting  the  falsehood  of  a  certain  story  in  the 
Auditor  concerning  him. 

The  author  of  the  North  Britain,  in  introducing 
the  letter  of  William  Temple,  has  the  peculiar  or- 
thography of  Junius,   '  intire   for   entire '  ;  but  Mr. 
Wilkes,  at  the  end  of  the  same  number,  writes  '  en- 
tire.'    Doubdess    the    printer    followed   the   manu- 
script.   The  writer  of  this  letter  uses  certain  words 
and  phrases,  never,  1  am  persuaded,  found  in  the 
North  Briton  nor  in  Junius  ; — as  "  we  must  con- 
fess," instead  of  the  invariable  phrase,  "  /  must  con- 
fess."     Also,   'Well;'— 'by  the  bye  ;'—' remark 
liini ! ' — '  wriggle  themselves   into  power,'  three  or 
four  times ; — and  some  other  expressions,  which  the 
superior  taste  and  decorum  of  the  author  of  the 


APPENDIX. 


147 


North  Briton  could  not  have  permitted  him  to  em- 
ploy. Besides,  the  author,  I  think,  could  have  no 
motive  to  represent  the  letter  as  coming  from  Trow- 
bridge, unless  it  had  actually  come  from  Wiltshire. 

The  letter  of  William  Temple,  I  am  persuaded, 
is  the  only  article,  which  Mr.  Wilkes  wrote  for  the 
North  Briton. 

In  respect  to  Mr.  Churchill,  the  author  in 
No.  11  expressly  denies,  that  he  was  concerned  in 
the  North  Briton,  but  speaks  of  him  in  high  terms ; 
"  the  literary  world  is  indebted  to  that  manly  genius 
for  some  of  the  noblest  productions  of  our  age  and 
language,  which  will  live  and  be  admired  by  posteri- 
ty, after  all  our  short-lived  political  offspring  have 
perished." 

As  to  Mr.  Lloyd,  the  author  has  inserted  his 
poem,  "  The  Poetry  Professors  "  in  Nos.  22  and 
26  ;  but  tlie  author  of  the  North  Briton  is  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  poet,  whom  he  praises,  and  whose 
poetry  he  introduces  for  the  purpose  of  ridiculing 
the  '  versemanship'  on  account  of  the  birth  of  a 
prince,  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

Every  reader  of  the  North  Briton  must  perceive, 
that  the  author  was  one,  and  that  he  had  one  steady 
aim — to  overthrow  the  ministry  and  raise  himself  to 
office.  The  first  sentence  is  in  the  very  spirit  of 
Junius — "  The  liberty  of  the  press  is  the  birth-right 


148  APPENDIX. 

of  a  Briton,  and  is  justly  esteemed  the  firmest  bul- 
wark of  the  liberties  of  this  country.  It  has  been 
the  terror  of  all  bad  ministers,"  he.  In  the  first 
number,  lord  Mansfield,  to  whom  Sackville  and 
Junius  bore  an  inveterate  enmity,  is  attacked  : 
"  Let  me  beg  of  you,  Mr.  Monitor,  do  commit  trea- 
son :  pray  be  taken  up  by  Carrington  and  tried  by 
Mansfield  :  his  regard  to  the  liberty  of  the  subject 
is  known,  and  his  lender  mercies  will  not  be  cruel- 
ty." In  the  7th  number  he  is  called  lord  '  Womans- 
meadow.'  In  the  14th  number: — "  I  should  like  to 
see  this  very  moral  Codex  Buteanus,  illustrated  with 
the  German  commentaries  of  count  Mansfeldt,  that 
accomplished  civilian,  and  justly  renowned,  not  so 
much  indeed  for  nervous,  manly  sense,  as  for  spin- 
ning the  most  curious  webs  of  artful  sophistry,  finer 
and  slighter  than  the  very  gossamer."  He  is  after- 
wards assaulted.  Let.  it  now  be  asked,  what  ordi- 
nary political  writer  would  have  felt  this  inveterate 
hostility  to  lord  Mansfield  ? 

The  author  of  the  North  Briton  had  evidently 
]nuch  at  stake,  and  had  taken  the  most  prudent 
measures  in  order  to  avoid  detection.  In  No.  27 
he  says — "  Not  content  with  thus  basely  flying  from 
their  colors  themselves,  they  tempt  mo  to  follow  the 
infamous  example  ;  and  as  an  inducement  thereto, 
propose  the  consideration  of  my  own  safety. — Let 


APPENDIX.  149 

them  point  out,  if  they  can,  and  if  they  dare,  from 
whom,  and  on  what  account,  I  am  in  danger,  before 
they  produce  it  as  a  motive  to  affect  my  conduct ; 
and  plainly  shall  they  prove,  that  I  have  deserved 
punishment,  before  they  shall  oppress  me  with  the 
fear  of  it." 

The  author  was  evidently  alarmed,  from  the  con- 
finement of  some  persons  concerned  in  the  Monitor, 
of  which  he  was  doubtless  the  author  of  Nos.  357, 
and  360,  published  May  22,  and  June  12,  1762. 
Again  he  speaks  of  '  the  liberty  of  the  press,  that 
bulwark  of  the  liberties  of  the  people.'     In  No.  32 
the  North  Briton  speaks  as  an  individual,  and  claims 
the  credit,  merited  "  by  a  faithful  and  close  regard 
to  truth,  the  great  object  of  all  his  political  enqui- 
ries."    In  No.  37  he  says — "  professing  always  a 
regard   to   decency,  as  well  as  to  my  own  safety,''^ 
In  No.  44,  "  Inclination  there  is,  no  doubt,  to  silence 
the  North  Briton,  but  a  consciousness  of  guilt  pre- 
vents its  being  carried  into  execution  -,   and  however 
they  may  deal  out  large  promises,  and  thunder  forth 
empty  threats,  that  impudent  libeller,  as  they   are 
pleased  to  call,  but  cannot,  or  dare  not  prove  him, 
shall  still  pursue  the  path,  in  which  he  has  hitherto 
trod ;  and  whilst  he  finds  the  opposition,  which  is 
now    gathering    over  the   minister's   head,"   &z;c. — 
''  The  laws  of  my  country  are  my  protection ;  my 

13* 


150  APPENDIX. 

only  patron  is  the  Public,  to  which  1  will  ever 
make  my  appeal,  and  hold  it  sacred." 

Mr.  Wilkes  never  expressly  claimed  to  be  the 
author  of  the  celebrated  number  45.  On  the  con- 
trary, in  his  petition  to  the  King,  March  4,  1768,  he 
speaks  of  the  ministers,  who  had  "  imagined  him  to 
be  the  principal  author"  of  their  overthrow, — allud- 
ing to  the  North  Briton — and  adds — "  I  have  been 
the  innocent  but  unhappy  victim  of  their  revenge." 

In  a  speech,  which  Mr.  Wilkes  made  at  the  bar 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  May,  1763,  he  said 
— "  I  am  accused  of  being  the  author  of  the  JVortk 
Briton,  No.  45. — The  author  of  this  paper,  whoever 
he  may  be,  has,  upon  constitutional  principles,  done 
directly  the  reverse,  and  is  therefore,  in  me,  the  sup- 
posed author,  meant  to  be  persecuted  accordingly." 

In  the  third  place,  I  think  Mr.  Wilkes  was  incapa- 
ble of  writing  that  paper.  I  mean,  that  it  has  some 
peculiarities  of  style,  not  found  in  his  productions; 
some  excellencies  of  style,  which  he  could  not 
reach.  The  longest  undoubted  paper  of  Mr. 
Wilkes,  which  I  have  seen,  is  an  Introduction  to  the 
History  of  England,  &ic.  in  34  pages.  I  cannot 
find  in  this  Introduction  any  of  the  characteristics  of 
North  Briton  No.  45 ;  but  in  this  number  I  do  find 
striking  indications  of  the  pen  of  Junius  ; — the  same 
selection  of  words  and  phrases,  and  the  same  point- 


APPENDIX. 


151 


ed  and  polished  sentences.  I  will  first  exhibit  some 
of  the  words  and  phrases,  and  then  a  few  sentences, 
which,  I  think,  to  every  one  conversant  with  the 
letters  of  Junius,  will  present  strong  features  of  re- 
semblance. 

"  He  is  really  fearful  of  falling  into  involuntary- 
errors." — "  Govern  by  the  three  vjretched  tools  of 
his  power,  w^ho  to  their  indelible  infamy  have  sup- 
ported the  most  odious  of  his  measures,  the  late  ig- 
nominious peace,^^  &ic. — "  Seems  dear  to  a  demon- 
stration— I  mean  the  dictating,"  &z;c. — "  Pledged 
himself  a  firm  and  intrepid  assertor  of  the  rights,^^ — 
"  Abandoned  instance  of  ministerial  effrontery  ever 
attempted  to  be  imposed  upon  mankind." — "  Not  to 
be  paralleled^ — "  I  am  in  doubt  whether,"  he. — 
"  /  am  sure — will  hold  the  minister  in  contempt  and 
abhorrence. ^^ — "  The  infamous  fallacy  of  this  whole 
sentence." — "Meanly  arrogate  to  himself  a  share  in 
the  fame,"  he. — "Our  wre^cAec? negotiators." — "So 
vainly  boasted  o/*." — "  I  will  venture  to  say  he  must 
by  this  time  be  ashamed  of." — "  The  creatures  of 
the  minister." — "  Lord  Ligonier  is  now  no  longer  at 
the  head  of  the  army  ;  but  lord  Bute  in  effect  is :  I 
mean,  that  every  preferment,"  &c." — "  Enormous 
influence." — "  Creatures  of  the  Scottish  faction." — 
"  In  point  of  military  force  complimented  away." 
— "  See  the  honor  of  the  crown  religiously  assert- 


153  APPENDIX. 

ec?." — "  The  prerogative  of  the  crown  is  to  exert 
the  constitutional  powers  entrusted  to  it." 

"  Every  friend  of  his  country  must  lament,  that  a 
prince  of  so  many  great  and  amiable  qualities,  whom 
England  truly  reveres,  can  be  brought  to  give  the 
sanction  of  his  sacred  name  to  the  most  odious 
measures,  and  to  the  most  unjustifiable  public  de- 
clarations, from  a  throne  ever  renowned  for  truth, 
honor,  and  unsullied  virtue." — "They  have  sent  the 
spirit  of  discord  through  the  land,  and  I  will  prophe- 
cy, that  it  will  never  be  extinguished,  but  by  the  ex- 
tinction of  their  power." — "  The  spirit  of  concord 
hath  not  gone  forth  among  them ;  but  the  spirit  of 
liberty  has,  and  a  noble  opposition  has  been  given  to 
the  wicked  instruments  of  oppression." — "  The  min- 
istry are  not  ashamed  of  doing  the  thing  in  private  ; 
they  are  only  afraid  of  the  publication." 

I  might  proceed  with  quotations  ;  but  I  deem  any 
more  unnecessary.  If  by  the  diligent  study  of  Ju- 
nius I  have  acquired  any  skill  in  discerning  his  spirit 
and  style,  I  see  them  in  this  No.  45 ; — and  of  the 
power  of  writing  this  number  the  known  productions 
of  Wilkes  furnish  no  promise. 

The   mysterious  manner,  in  which  the  name  of 

Sackvilh  is  introduced  into  this  number,  has  much 

the  appearance  of  a  purpose  of  removing  from  him 

the  suspicion  of  being  the  author. — "  Was  it  a  ten- 


APPENDIX.  153 

der  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  late  king,  or  of  his 
present  niajesty,  that  invited  to  court  lord  George 
Sackville  in  these  first  days  of  peace,  to  share  in  the 
general  satisfaction,  which  all  good  courtiers  receiv- 
ed in  the  indignity  offered  to  lord  Ligonier?"  Sic. — 
On  the  accession  of  George  the  III.,  the  earl  of 
Bute  invited  Sackville  to  court ;  but  his  appearance 
there  caused  a  great  excitement,  and  he  appeared 
no  more  during  that  administration.  He  thought 
himself  duped  in  the  affair  by  the  earl  of  Bute, 
against  whom  he  felt  a  strong  indignation.  Junius 
espouses  the  cause  of  lord  Ligonier. 

Let  us  now  see  in  what  manner  lord  Sackville 
speaks  of  the  North  Briton.  In  an  elegant  speech 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  December,  1770,  he 
says — "  Juries  will  not  convict  petty  delinquents, 
when,  they  suspect,  grand  criminals  go  unpunished. 
Hence  libels  and  lampoons,  audacious  beyond  the 
example  of  all  other  times  ;  libels  in  comparison  of 
which  the  North  Briton,  once  deemed  the  ne  plus 
ultra  of  sedition,  is  perfect  innocence  and  simplicity. 
The  sacred  number,  forty-jive,  formerly  the  idol  of 
the  multitude,  is  eclipsed  by  the  superior  venom  of 
every  day's  defamation  :  all  its  magical  and  talis- 
manic  powers  are  lost  and  absorbed  in  the  general 
deluge  of  scandal,  which  pours  from  the  press. 
When  matters   are  thus  circumstanced,  when  the 


154  APPENDIX. 

judges  in  general,  and  lord  Mansfield  in  particular, 
are  there  hung  out  to  public  scorn  and  detestation," 
&:c. 

Now  this  speech  was  on  a  motion  to  inquire  into 
the  administration  of  criminal  justice ;  and  it  urged 
the  inquiry,  and  under  a  pretence  of  friendship  to 
lord  Mansfield  it  was  evidently  hostile  to  him,  par- 
taking of  the  spirit  of  Junius'  letter  to  Mansfield, 
written  in  the  preceding  month.  I  cannot  doubt, 
that  here  was  the  author  of  the  Sacred  Number  45 
and  the  author  of  Junius'  letter  to  lord  Mansfield, 
alluding,  in  his  conscious  security  and  in  proud  ela- 
tion of  mind,  to  both  those  productions,  and  under 
th^  disguise  of  candor  still  pursuing  his  stern  and 
determined  aim,  to  urge  his  way  to  oflice  and  rank. 
I  much  doubt,  whether  in  the  history  of  the  world 
a  more  striking  example  can  be  found  of  steadfast, 
immoveable  purpose,  and  of  persevering  and  singu- 
lar toil  in  the  chase  of  a  shadow.  He  began  his 
attack  on  the  ministry  by  his  "  Considerations  on  the 
German  War"  in  1760.  The  North  Briton  began 
June  5,  17G2,  and  continued  till  November  12, 
1763.  The  History  of  the  Reign  of  George  III. 
appeared  in  1770.  The  letters  of  Junius  extended 
from  1769  to  1773.  He  doubtless  published  many 
other  pamphlets  and  addresses  to  the  public.  Junius 
says,   15   August,    1771 — ^' I  cannot  recall  to  my 


APPENDIX.  155 

memory  the  numberless  trifles,  that  I  have  written ; 
— but  I  rely  upon  the  consciousness  of  rny  own  in- 
tegrity, and  defy  him  to  fix  any  colorable  charge  of 
inconsistency  upon  me." 

Through  all  the  numbers  of  the  North  Briton  I 
have  found,  as  I  believe,  the  peculiarities  of  style, 
which  belong  to  lord  Sackville  and  to  Junius  ;  of 
which  I  will  furnish  a  few  specimens,  referring  the 
reader  to  the  corresponding  passages  already  quoted 
from  Sackville  and  Junius. 

"The  insinuations   thrown   out;'''' — "thrown  out 
much  abuse;" — ^' to  have  thrown  out  thoughts;" 
— "  able    to    screen   such   evil   counsellors  ; " — "  to 
screen  themselves  behind  the  throne  ; " — "  such  a 
man  will  go  all  lengths  to  raise  a  laugh  ; " — "  to  run 
all    lengths;^'' — "i   confess ;^^ — "I  must    confess,''^ 
frequently  ; — "  I  own  ;  " — "  1  affirm  ;" — "  I  venture 
to    say;" — "their    navy    was    so  formidable;'''' — 
"make  the  badness  of  his  heart  more  formidable  ;^^ 
— "struck  a  blow;" — the  constant  use  of  the  words 
"  assert,   assertion,   exert,  exertion,   scruple,    really, 
surely,  enormous,   infamous,   wretch,    wretched ;" — 
"  mtitle,  inclose,  mtire,"  for  entitle,  &£c. ; — "  beyond 
all  doubt;" — -" juncture ;'''' — "practicable,  imprac- 
ticable ;  " — "  the  trial  by  jury — the  sacred  palladi- 
um of  liberty." — "  Enquiry,"  whereas  Wilkes  writes 
"Inquiry."     Sackville,  in  a  letter,  1745,  of  which 


156  APPENDIX. 

Coventry  gives  a  fac-simile,  has  "  enquired,  enquir- 
ing." In  Woodfall's  edition  of  Junius  the  words  are 
found  promiscuously,  "  enquire  and  inquire,  enquiry 
and  inquiry."  It  is  probable,  that  the  author  of  the 
letters  of  Junius  wrote  in  both  ways. 

Even  the  defects  as  to  grammar  are  such,  as  be- 
long to  Sackville  and  Junius  :  "  dissensions  have 
arose ;^^ — "a  Roman  spirit  has  rose  against  them 
here;" — "is  from  necessity  drove  to  ask  peace;" — 
"has  broke  through;" — "the  earl  of  Mar  too  had 
wrote  the  warmest  letter  ;" — "  I  wish  were  wrote  in 
letters  of  gold;" — "an  Englishman  would  have 
wrote.'^'' 

From  the  frequent  military  allusions,  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  the  author  was  a  soldier,  who  had 
seen  real  service  ;  and  from  repeated  mention  of 
occurrences  in  a  "  certain  great  assembly, "  there  is 
reason  to  believe  he  was  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons. 

But  beyond  all  these  separate  probabilities  the 
sentiments,  the  antithesis,  and  the  sentences  of  the 
North  Briton  prove,  that  he  was  Junius. 

Take  the  following  instances : — "  Give  them  more 
reason  to  complain  of  our  being  rich,  than  ever  they 
had  to  reproach  us  w^ith  our  being  poor." — "The 
same  consideration  of  interest,  which  then  made  us 
false,   would  now  make  us  true." — "  As  we  have 


APPENDIX.  157 

had  the  address  to  obtain,  I  trust  we  shall  have  the 
resolution  to  preserve  them."  No.  4. — "  Such 
comparisons,  as  no  man  of  sense  could  and  no  true 
Briton  ought  to  draw." — "  To  his  enemies  it  is  mat- 
ter of  triumph,  though  to  his  friends  it  shall  never  be 
the  cause  of  shame."  Speaking  of  Mr.  Pitt — "  Our 
enemies  were  convinced  he  would  make  a  good 
peace  or  none  at  all ;  he  was  so  jealous  of  his  minis- 
terial reputation,  and  so  envious  of  those,  who  should 
succeed  him,  that  in  order  to  prevent  their  doing  of 
any  thing,  he  left  litde  or  nothing  for  them  to  do." 
No.  8. — "  A  rank  and  infamous  falsehood,  which  he 
hath  neither  courage  to  maintain,  nor  honesty  to  ac- 
knowledge." No.  21.—"  Can  we  weigh  their  prin- 
ciples, and  not  suspect  their  actions?" — "Instead  of 
evidencing  a  change  of  principles,  declares,  that  they 
have  no  principles  at  all."  No.  33. — "  They  show- 
ed their  strength  as  well  as  their  venom."  No.  36. 
— "  They  may  for  a  short  time  endanger  our  little 
world  ;  but  their  own  ruin  will  be  the  certain  conse- 
quence."— "  Their  fall  will  be  unpitied ;  their  mem- 
ories forever  detested." — "  The  very  great  and  ex- 
cessive complaisance  of  the  associates  in  power,  if 
he  will  suffer  them  to  be  called  associates,  whom  he 
never  suffers  to  act  as  such,  in  embracing  his  perni- 
cious doctrines,  and  falling  in  implicitly  with  his  fatal 
measures  ;  their  joining  to  give  up  in  peace  what  we 

14 


158  APPENDIX. 

had  gained  in  war ;  their  taking  such  steps,  as  not 
only  partially  affect  the  property,  but  strike  deeply 
at  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  have  weaned  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people  from  those  few  members  in  the 
administration,  in  whom  they  had  reposed  some  lit- 
tle confidence,  and  encreased  their  suspicions  in  re- 
gard to  those,  whose  former  behavior  had  not  enti- 
tled them  to  any  confidence  at  all."  No.  44. — 
*'  Stupidity  may  not  apprehend,  or  sophistry  may 
sometimes  seem  to  elude  the  strongest  reasonings, 
but  the  evidence  of  facts  is  irresistible."     No.  9. 

In  examining  the  writings  of  Mr.  Wilkes  I  cannot 
find  any  trace  of  the  footsteps  of  the  lion.  Over 
those  sands  the  king  of  the  desart  never  walked. 

"  The  North  Briton  speaks  of  clergymen  in  the 
very  style  of  Junius  :  "  The  ecclesiastics  are  an  art- 
ful, subtle,  and  powerful  body  in  all  countries  :  tbeir 
eyes,  however  dim  to  other  things,  are  remarkably 
quick  to  every  thing,  which  concerns  their  own  in- 
terests :  they  are  generally  proud,  revengeful,  and 
implacable." — "  Safer  indeed  will  our  nation  always 
find  it  to  attack  a  Savior,  than  a  Surplice,  to  rase 
out  the  four  evangelists  than  to  shew  an  inclination 
for  plucking  one  spiritual  ear  of  English  corn." 
No.  10. 

Compare  this  with  Junius  :  "  The  resentment  of 
a  priest  is  implacable ;  no  sufferings  can  soften,  no 


APPENDIX.  159 

penitence  can  appease  him." — "No,  my  lord,  it  was 
the  solitary,  vindictive  malice  of  a  monk,  he.  Now 
let  him  go  back  to  his  cloister.  The  church  is  a 
proper  retreat  for  him.  In  his  principles  he  is  al- 
ready a  bishop."     Compare  also  the  following  : 

North  Briton.  "  A  doctrine,  which  many  pre- 
ceding monarchs  had  endeavored  to  establish  by 
cmmins;,  but  which  the  Stuarts  first  ooenlv  avowed, 
and  would  have  confirmed  by  force."     No.  33. 

Sackville's  Speech,  1770.  "  Surely  it  is  the 
duty  of  his  parliament  to  guard  him  against  the  in- 
sidious artifices  of  those,  who,  having  rendered 
themselves  odious  by  their  conduct,  have  nothing 
more  to  do,  but  to  render  themselves  secure  by 
their  cunning." 

As  Junius  sometimes  wrote  under  the  signature 
of  Lucius,  the  following  extract  from  North  Briton, 
number  36,  is  worth  consideration  : — "  The  younger, 
Brutus,  who  delivered  Rome  from  the  tyranny  of 
Caesar,  was  descended  from  the  patriot  stem  of  Lu- 
cius Junius  Brutus,  who  expelled  the  Tarquins. 
His  countrymen  were  continually  making  a  kind  of 
family  claim  on  him  to  stand  forth  their  deliverer, 
and  to  emulate  the  glories  of  his  godlike  ancestor." 

Junius  says,  September  7,  1771, — "  1  have  serv- 
ed Mr.  Wilkes,  and  am  still  capable  of  serving  him." 
But  when  had  Junius  done  this,  unless  he  was  the 


160  APPENDIX. 

North  Briton,  who  published  Mr.  Wilkes'  letter  to 
Burton,  and,  particularly,  who  defended  him  in  re- 
gard to  the  general  warrant  by  writing  the  Queries 
in  St.  James'  Chronicle,  May  24,  1763,  and  by 
preparing  for  that  paper  the  Speeches,  '  said  to  he 
made  '  by  Mr.  Wilkes  ?  Surely  Junius  had  not  serv- 
ed Mr.  Wilkes  by  speaking  ironically  of  his  '  patriot- 
ism, as  thriving  by  persecution,'  nor  by  these  terms 
in  the  letter  to  the  king  December  19,  1769  ; — 
"  Pardon  this  man  the  remainder  of  his  punishment. 
— He  will  soon  fall  back  into  his  natural  station; — a 
silent  senator,  and  hardly  supporting  the  weekly  elo- 
quence of  a  newspaper.  The  gentle  breath  of  peace 
would  leave  him  on  the  surface,  neglected  and  unre- 
moved.  It  is  only  the  tempest,  that  lifts  him  from 
his  place." 

Of  this  discipline  Wilkes  himself  piteously  said  in 
his  letter  to  Junius,  September  12,  1771 — "  He  has 
poured  balm  into  my  wounds,  the  deepest  of  which 
I  sigh,  when  I  recollect,  were  made  by  that  now 
friendly  hand.  I  am  always  ready  to  kiss  his  rod, 
but  I  hope  its  destination  is  changed,"  &ic. 

The  North  Briton,  No.  12  says — ^"  The  word^e??- 
sion  has  of  late  much  puzzled  our  politicians.  I  do 
not  recollect,  that  any  one  of  them  has  ventured  at  a 
definition  of  it.  Mr.  Johnson,  as  he  is  now  a  pen- 
sioner,  one  should  naturally  have  recourse  to  for  the 


APPENDIX.  161 

truest  literary  information  on  this  subject.  His  de- 
finition then  of  a  pension  is,  An  allowance  made  to 
any  one  imthout  an  equivalent.  In  England  it  is 
generally  understood  to  mean^  pay  given  to  a  state 
hireling  for  treason  to  his  country.  And  under  the 
word  pensioner  we  read,  1.  a  dependant }  2.  a  slave 
of  state  J  hired  by  a  stipend  to  obey  his  master.  But, 
with  submission  to  this  great  prodigy  of  learning,  1 
should  think  both  definitions  very  erroneous.  Is  the 
said  Mr.  Johnson  a  dependant?  or  is  he  a  slave  of 
state,  hired  by  a  stipend  to  obey  his  master  ?  "  The 
writer  then  ironically  represents  Johnson  as  deserv- 
ing a  royal  pension,  on  account  of  his  gentleman- 
like compliments  to  his  majesty's  grandfather  and 
his  decent  treatment  of  the  parliament.  "  No  man, 
who  has  read  only  one  poem  of  his,  London,  but 
must  congratulate  the  good  sense  and  discerning 
spirit  of  the  minister,  who  bestows  such  a  part  of  the 
public  treasure  on  this  distinguished  friend  of  the 
public,  of  his  master's  family,  and  of  the  constitution 
of  this  country." 

In  another  part  he  says — "  Neither  of  you  have 
reached  the  force  and  closeness  of  expression  in  the 
great  lexicographer,  Mr.  Johnson,  who  defines  a 
Favorite  to  be  a  mean  wretch,  whose  whole  business 
is  by  any  means  to  please.  But  whether  the  word 
has  been  well  defined  or  not,  in  former  periods  of 

14^ 


163  APPENDIX. 

the  English  history,  the  effect  of  it  has  been  vety 
fully  felt,  and  even  at  this  hour  it  is  never  uttered 
without  the  most  unjust  passion  and  ill  founded  re- 
sentment, as  if  the  nation  was  now  smarting  from 
the  sad  consequences  of  its  reality  and  exertion  in 
pride  and  insolence." 

The  reasons  for  believing  this  number  of  the 
North  Briton  to  have  been  written  by  Sackville  are 
the  violent  attack  on  the  earl  of  Bute, — references 
to  mathematical  definitions  and  to  books  of  fortifica- 
tion, which  are  not  very  Hkely  to  have  come  from 
Mr.  Wilkes,  though  he  was  a  colonel, — the  reference 
to  "  the  memorable  year  1746,"  when  Sackville 
fought  against  the  rebels — but  of  vviiich  year  Wilkes 
could  have  known  but  little,  then  but  18  years  of 
age, — the  ridicule  of  lord  Litchfield  for  his  re- 
missness at  that  period, — and  the  terms,  in  which 
Mr.  Pitt  is  spoken  of. 

I  am  persuaded,  that  Sackville  also  wrote  '  A 
North  Briton  Extraordinary,'  which  was  printed, 
but  not  pubhshed  April  17,  1763.  Junius,  in  writing 
to  Mr.  Woodfall,  speaks  of  one  of  his  letters  as  being 
worth  '  a  whole  North  Briton  Extraordinary.'  Be- 
sides this  uncommon  remark,  the  style  is  that  of 
Junius.  "Mr.  Pitt's  resolution  arose  from  conscious 
virtue,  and  the  earl  of  Bute's  from  conscious  pow- 
er;" &ic. 


APPENDIX.  163 

Of  Junius  Dr.  Johnson  says,  in  bis  '  Thoughts  on 
the  Transactions  respecting  Falkland's  Islands,'  1771 
— "  This  thirst  of  blood,  however  the  visible  promot- 
ers of  sedition  ma}^  think  it  convenient  to  shrink  from 
the  accusation,  is  loudly  avowed  by  Junius,  the 
writer,  to  whom  his  party  owes  much  of  its  pride, 
and  some  of  its  popularity.  Of  Junius  it  cannot  be 
said,  as  of  Ulysses,  that  he  scatters  ambiguous  ex- 
pressions among  the  vulgar ;  for  he  cries  havock 
without  reserve,  and  endeavors  to  let  slip  the  dogs  of 
foreign  or  of  civil  war,  ignorant  whither  they  are 
going,  and  careless  what  may  be  their  prey. 

"  Junius  has  sometimes  made  his  satire  felt,  but 
let  not  injudicious  admiration  mistake  the  venom  of 
the  shaft  for  the  vigor  of  the  bow. 

"  Junius  burst  into  notice  with  a  blaze  of  impu- 
dence, which  has  rarely  glared  upon  the  world  be- 
fore, and  drew  the  rabble  after  him,  as  a  monster 
makes  a  show.  When  he  had  once  provided  for  his 
safety  by  impenetrable  secrecy,  he  had  nothing  to 
combat  but  truth  and  justice,  enemies  whom  he 
knows  to  be  feeble  in  the  dark. 

"  Junius  is  an  unusual  phenomenon,  on  which 
some  have  gazed  with  w^onder  and  some  with  terror, 
but  wonder  and  terror  are  transitory  passions.  He 
will  soon  be  more  closely  viewed  or  more  attentively 
examined,  and  what  folly  has  taken  for  a  comet,  that 


164  APPENDIX. 

from  its  flaming  hair  shook  pestilence  and  war,  in- 
quiry will  find  to  be  only  a  meteor,  formed  by  the 
vapors  of  putrefying  democracy,  and  kindled  into 
flame  by  the  eflervescence  of  interest  struggling  with 
conviction  ;  which  after  having  plunged  its  followers 
in  a  bog,  will  leave  us  inquiring  why  we  regard  it. 

"  Yet,  though  I  cannot  think  the  style  of  Junius 
secure  from  criticism,  though  his  expressions  are 
often  trite,  and  his  periods  feeble,  I  should  never 
have  stationed  him  where  he  has  placed  himself, 
had  I  not  rated  him  by  his  morals  rather  than  his 
facuhies.  What,  says  Pope,  must  be  the  priest, 
where  a  monkey  is  the  god?  What  must  be  the 
drudge  of  a  party,  of  which  the  heads  are  Wilkes 
and  Crosby,  Sawhidge  and  Townsend  ?  " 

It  will  be  considered  a  curious  circumstance,  if 
Junius,  whom  Johnson  thus  assails,  should  prove  to 
be  the  North  Briton,  who  had  previously  endeavor- 
ed to  overwhelm  ''  Pensioner  Johnson "  with  ridi- 
cule. Nor  will  it  be  the  less  curious,  that  "  the 
meteor,  formed  by  the  vapors  of  a  putrefying  democ- 
racy,^'' as  Johnson  deemed  in  1771,  should,  in  1775, 

the  year  in  which  Johnson  wrote  his  'Taxation 

no  Tyranny,' — be  a  chosen  Minister  of  his  Majesty, 
and  the  adviser  and  stern  supporter  of  all  the  meas- 
ures, which  were  adopted  to  maintain  the  claims  of 
royalty  and  to  subjugate  the  rebellious  colonics.     In 


APPENDIX.  165 

Johnson's  eyes  this  ''  meteor  of  democracy." — lord 
Sackville, — was  in  1775  doubtless  a  bright  planet, 
revolving  around  the  dazzling  luminary  of  Royalty. 

If  Sackville  was  the  author  of  the  History  of  the 
Reign  of  George  III.,  Dr.  Johnson  was  not  alone  in 
forming  a  mistaken  judgment  of  the  political  senti- 
ments of  the  writer  of  the  letters  of  Junius,  and  in 
ascribing  to  Democratic  or  Republican  principle 
what  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  rancor  of  party,  or  the 
violence  of  ambition.  The  Monthly  Review  says  of 
the  author  of  the  History — "  He  appears  to  be  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  what  the  Authors  of  antiqui- 
ty have  written  concerning  liberty  and  government. 
— We  should  imagine,  that  he  may  have  imbibed 
from  them  too  large  a  proportion  of  that  love  of 
equality  and  independence,  which,  though  of  the 
greatest  advantage  in  a  pure  repuMic,  is  not  alto- 
gether so  suitable  to  the  genius  and  spirit  of  a  limit- 
ed monarchy." 

This  indiscreet  republican  and  great  lover  of  in- 
dependence, as  he  was  deemed  by  the  wise  Re- 
viewer, was  shortly  afterwards,  as  I  am  persuaded, 
the  inflexible  minister  of  royalty  and  stern  foe  of 
American  liberty,  firmly  resolved  never  to  acknowl- 
edge the  independence  of  brave  colonies,  struggling 
for  their  invaluable,  unalienable  rights. 


166  APPENDIX. 

Regarding  Sackville  as  the  author  of  the  various 
works,  which  have  now  been  ascribed  to  him,  I  have 
not  formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  his  morality. 
There  was  one  steady  object  in  most  of  them, — to 
overthrow  the  existing  ministry,  that  he  might  ele- 
vate himself  to  office ;  and  this  object  was  united 
with  the  indulgence  of  a  spirit  of  revenge.  His 
strong  passions  were  exhibited  in  the  employment  of 
the  bitterest  sarcasms  and  the  most  contumelious 
language.  His  irreverent  use  of  the  name  of  God 
is  hardly  reconcileable  with  any  well  founded  prin- 
ciples of  morals ;  as  when  he  says  to  his  printer, 
December  19,  1769,  "  For  material  affection,  for 
God's  sake,  read  maternal.'''*  So  again,  March  18, 
1770.  "This  letter  is  written  wide. — For  God's 
sake  let  it  appear  to-morrow."  Also  the  idle  words, 
*  God  only  knows.'  Whether  a  man,  accustomed  to 
speak  and  write  in  this  manner,  as  unhappily  is  the 
case  with  many  gentlemen,  can  be  an  habitual  wor- 
shipper of  God  and  daily  influenced  in  his  conduct 
by  the  fear  of  the  Almighty,  or  by  a  regard  to  his 
approbation, — the  only  stable  principle  of  morals, — 
I  leave  it  to  the  intelligent  reader  to  judge. 

One  of  the  letters  of  Junius  was  so  shamefully 
indecent,  that  he  had  the  good  sense  to  exclude  it 
from  his  edition.  One  can  hardly  attach  much 
credit  to  his  apology  for  it,  if  he  was  the  sole  depos- 


APPENDIX.  167 

itory  of  his  own  secret  :  "  The  last  letter  you  print- 
ed was  idle  and  improper,  and  I  assure  you  printed 
against  my  own  opinion.  The  truth  is,  there  are 
people  about  me,  whom  I  would  wish  not  to  contra- 
dict, and  who  had  rather  see  Junius  in  the  paper 
ever  so  improperly,  than  not  at  all.  I  wish  it  could 
be  recalled.  Suppose  you  were  to  say — We  have 
some  reason  to  suspect,  that  the  last  letter,  signed 
Junius  in  this  paper,  was  not  written  by  the  real 
Junius."  In  this  suggestion  there  is  little  of  candor 
and  honesty. 

His  indulgence  to  Wilkes  indicates  but  httle  of 
stoic  virtue  :  "  I  too  am  no  enemy  to  good  fellow- 
ship, and  have  often  cursed  that  canting  parson  [Mr. 
Home]  for  wishing  to  deny  you  your  claret.  It  is 
for  him,  and  men  like  him  to  beware  of  intoxication. 
Though  I  do  not  place  the  little  pleasures  of  life  in 
competition  with  the  glorious  business  of  instructing 
and  directing  the  people,  yet  I  see  no  reason  why  a 
wise  man  may  not  unite  the  public  virtues  of  Cato 
with  the  indulgence  of  Epicurus."  But  alas,  where 
shall  we  find  public  virtue  without  private  ?  Is  it  in 
Wilkes,  who  made  a  trade  of  patriotism,  and  who, 
deeming  "  the  public  a  goose,"  regarded  the  man  as 
a  fool,  who  should  hesitate  in  plucking  a  feather? 
Or  is  it  in  Junius  himself,  the  once  flaming  patriot, 
and  glorious  teacher  of  the  people,  forgetting  in  the 


168  APPENDIX. 

capacity  of  minister  every  thing  but  the  interests  and 
wishes  of  his  royal  master,  who  might  reward  him 

with  a  peerage  ? 

Do  we  find  the  dignity  and  calmness  of  virtue  in 
the  opprobrious  terms  of  '  wretch,  idiot,  rascal,  fool, 
and  viliain,'  which  are  scattered  through  the  letters 
of  Junius  ? 

On  what  a  sandy  foundation  must  that  system  of 
morals  be  built,  which  admits  of  duelling  ?  Yet  it 
does  not  appear,  that  Sackville  felt  any  compunction 
for  his  violation  once,  in  a  private  combat,  of  the 
laws  of  God  and  man,  nor  for  the  purpose  of  vio- 
lating them  a  second  time.  In  that  mind,  which 
dreads  the  laugh  of  a  mortal  more  than  the  displeas- 
ure of  the  Almighty,  there  must  be  a  miserable  per- 
version of  intellect  and  of  passion.  There  may  be 
a  claim  to  worldly  honor ;  but  the  pretension  to  vir- 
tue, to  morals,  to  principle  is  ridiculous.  It  is  the 
glittering  bubble,  which  is  borne  along  by  every 
wave  ;  the  rock  remains  immoveable  amidst  the 
fluctuations  of  the  sea. 


NOTES. 


I. 


Since  the  foregoing  work  was  written,  it  has  been 
stated  in  the  newspapers,  copied  from  the  London 
Globe,  that  "  Five  letters  are  deposited  in  the  archives 
of  the  Grenville  family  at  Stow,  which  establish,  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  doubt,  the  real  author  of  Junius. 
This  eminent  individual  was  politically  connected  with 
Mr.  George  Grenville,  the  grandfather  of  the  present 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  from  whom  these  autograph 
proofs  have  descended  to  the  present  possessor.  The 
venerable  statesman,  nearly  allied  to  the  duke  of 
Buckingham,  has  requested  the  discovery  should  not 
be  published  during  his  life  time. — It  is  however  confi- 
dentially asserted,  that  in  all  the  controversies  relating 
to  these  celebrated  letters  the  author  of  them  has  not 
been  named." 

Such  is  the  last  and  newest  report;  and  it  deserves 
just  as  much  credit,  as  many  other  stories,  which  have 
had  their  day  and  are  now  forgotten. — If  in  this  notice 
it  is  intended  to  suggest,  that  the  author  of  the  letters 
of  Junius  is  now  living ; — then  he  must  be  indeed  a 
"venerable"  man,  for  as  it  is  now  more  than  sixty 
years  since  Junius  began  to  write,  if  we  allow,  that 
when  he  spoke  of  his  "long  experience"  he  was  fifty 

15 


170  N0TE8. 

years  of  age,  the  venerable  statesman  is  now  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  years  old  ! 

As  to  the  political  connexion  of  Junius  with  Mr. 
George  Grenville ;  Junius  declared  in  his  letter  of  July 
29,  1769,  that  he  had  not  "  the  honor  of  being  person- 
ally known  to  him." — There  is  in  fact  no  evidence, 
that  Sackville  was  personally  acquainted  with  Gren- 
ville.— In  respect  to  autograph  letters  of  Junius  being 
in  possession  of  the  Grenville  family,  it  is  altogether 
improbable,  for  the  letters  were  generally  returned  by 
Woodfall  to  the  author.  And  if  some  letters  of  Junius 
are  now  in  the  possession  of  that  family,  they  can  be  of 
no  more  value  in  determining  the  author,  than  the  auto- 
graph letters,  of  which  fac-similes  have  long  since  been 
published  by  Woodfall. 

However,  it  is  very  likely,  that  in  some  great  families 
in  England  there  are  autograph  letters  of  lord  George 
Sackville  ;  nor  can  I  doubt,  that  if  fac-similes  of  such 
letters,  written  about  the  year  1770,  were  given  to  the 
public,  they  would  exhibit  the  same  hand-writings 
which  is  presented  in  Woodfall's  specimens  of  Junius. 

It  is  worthy  of  remembrance,  that  when,  within  three 
or  four  years  past,  Mr.  Coventry  applied  to  the  Duke  of 
Dorset,  the  son  of  lord  Sackville,  for  permission  to  ex- 
amine some  letters  of  his  father,  written  from  Culloden 
and  Mindcn,  the  duke  observed,  that  he  had  not  "  any 
of  his  father's  letters  in  his  possession."  It  is  very 
probable  the  duke  suspected  the  inquiry  of  Mr.  Coven- 
try to  relate  to  the  author  of  the  letters  of  Junius.     He 


NOTES.  171 

more  than  once  remarked,  during  the  interview  with 
Mr.  Coventry,  "  that  his  father  was  an  injured  man ; 
but  he  believed  there  never  existed  one,  who  naturally 
possessed  a  better  or  more  susceptible  heart." 

Yet  the  autography  of  the  letters  of  Junius  is  not  de- 
cisive in  the  inquiry  concerning  the  author,  except  on 
the  supposition,  to  which  I  cannot  refuse  my  assent, 
that  he  did  not  employ  an  amanuensis,  unless  perhaps 
in  the  case  of  the  letter  to  the  King.  But,  if  it  could 
be  proved,  that  the  letters  of  Junius  were  not  in  the 
hand-writing  of  Sackville ;  it  would  not  affect  the  gen- 
eral argument  of  this  book.  It  may  still  be  clear,  be- 
yond a  reasonable  doubt,  that  he  was  the  author  of 
those  letters. 

Since  the  foregoing  work  was  written,  the  following 
extract  from  the  Baron  De  Stael's  Letters  on  England 
has  appeared  in  the  North  American  Review  for  Janu- 
ary, 1828  : — "  When  I  took  charge  of  the  North  Brit- 
on,"— said  the  noted  John  Wilkes, — "  I  found  it  in  the 
hands  of  Churchill  and  Lloyd,  who  were  men  of  taste 
and  wit.  I  soon  saw,  that  this  would  not  answer ;  and 
giving  up  all  pretensions  to  elegance  of  style,  I  began 
to  cry  out  with  all  my  might,  Down  with  the  Scotch- 
man !  Down  7mth  the  Scotchman  !  In  this  way  I  pretty 
soon  despatched  lord  Bute." — The  authority  for  ascrib- 
ing this  speech  to  Mr.  Wilkes  does  not  appear  ;  but  if 
correctly  ascribed,  it  will  strengthen  the  argument 
against  his  being  the  author  of  the  North  Briton.  It  is 
here  intimated,  that  the  first  numbers  of  that  paper  did 


172  NOTES. 

not  attack  lord  Bute,  and  that  they  are  written  v/ith 
greater  elegance  of  style,  than  the  latter  numbers ; 
neither  of  which  suggestions  is  founded  in  truth.  The 
original  and  great  object  of  the  North  Briton  was  to 
pull  down  the  Scotchman,  or  to  overthrow  the  existing 
administration.  The  very  first  number  ridicules  the 
eloquence  of  the  Scot,  and  obviously  refers  to  him  as  an 
"  insolent,  weak,  and  treacherous  minister."  The  sec- 
ond number  is  chiefly  devoted  to  the  "  Scotsman,  plant- 
ed at  the  head  of  the  English  treasury."  The  fourth 
number  says,  "  the  Earl  of  Bute,  John  Stuart,  a 
name  ever  dear  to  us, — possesses  the  first  post  in  the 
state."  The  fifth  number  is  a  most  violent  attack  on 
the  "  Favorite "  in  the  character  of  Mortimer,  ending 
with  the  wish,  that  when  power  is  acquired  by  profliga- 
cy, and  a  "court-minion"  rules,  the  prince  will,  like 
Edward,  "  crush  the  aspiring  wretch,  who  mounts  to 
power  by  such  ignoble  means."  Surely  this  is  crying 
out  lustily  enough — "  Down  with  the  Scotchman  !  " 

There  is  such  a  close  relation  between  the  fifth  num- 
ber and  the  thirty-ninth, — such  a  resemblance  in  argu- 
ment and  the  method  of  attacking  lord  Bute, — that 
probably  no  one  will  doubt,  that  they  both  proceeded 
from  the  same  pen ;  so  that,  if  Mr.  Wilkes  did  not 
write  the  early  numbers,  he  did  not  write  the  thirty- 
ninth.  Indeed,  by  comparing  the  various  numbers  of 
the  North  Briton,  the  intelligent  reader  will  not  fail  to 
be  convinced,  that  with  possibly  a  very  few  exceptions, 
in  which  the  author  made  use  of  the  papers  sent  to 


NOTES. 


173 


him,  they  all  bear  the  evident  stamp  of  the  same  mind. 
To  the  same  person  must  be  ascribed  the  ''  Dedication, 
prefixed  to  the  Fall  of  Mortimer,  to  the  right  honorable 
John,  Earl  of  Bute." 

There  are  other  considerations,  tending  to  prove, 
that  Mr.  Wilkes  did  not  vi^rite  the  North  Briton. — 
Would  he,  whose  profligacy  was  notorious,  have  been 
solicitous  on  account  of  the  pernicious  effect  of  lotte- 
ries ?  Would  he  have  written  in  No.  42 — "  Lotteries 
have  always  been  objected  to,  as  promoting  a  spirit  of 
gaming,  so  peculiarly  pernicious  to  a  commercial  coun- 
try?" 

The  North  Briton  indicates  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  state  of  the  finances  of  the  country,  the  affairs 
of  the  East  India  company,  the  condition  of  the  army, 
and  with  the  political  history  of  England  and  of  other 
countries,  which  can  hardly  be  ascribed  to  Mr.  Wilkes 
at  so  early  a  period  of  his  life, — and  much  less  to  Mr. 
Churchill,  who  had  just  abandoned  the  church  and  de- 
voted himself  to  profligacy  and  poetry,  or  to  his  friend, 
young  Mr.  Lloyd  ;  but  which  are  very  appropriate  to 
the  known  character  of  lord  Sackville. 

If  it  should  be  asked,  how  came  Churchill  to  receive 
the  profits  of  the  North  Briton,  as,  it  is  said,  was  given 
in  evidence  by  the  Bookseller,  it  may  be  replied,  that 
this  fact  is  fatal  to  the  pretensions,  as  commonly  under- 
stood, of  Mr.  Wilkes  to  be  author  and  proprietor.  If 
lord  Sackville  was  the  author,  as  he  could  not,  without 
danger  of  detection,  receive  the  profits  himself,  and 

15* 


■* 


174  NOTES. 

could  not  wish  for  them  ;  there  is  nothing  to  account 
for,  but  why  he  should  give  them  to  Mr.  Churchill, 
rather  than  to  some  other  person.  And  here  it  is  easy 
to  suppose  various  motives  ; — admiration  of  his  talents, 
— sympathy  with  him  in  his  rancorous  hostility  to  the 
Scotch,  as  manifested  by  his  "  Prophecy  of  Famine," — 
compassion  for  his  poverty,  as  he  had  just  escaped  the 
terrors  of  a  prison  by  compounding  with  his  creditors, — 
and  the  desire  of  enlisting  his  powers  in  the  attack  on 
the  ministry.  The  praise  of  Churchill  in  No.  11  has 
already  been  alluded  to.  On  the  supposition,  that 
Sackville  conducted  the  North  Briton,  all  obscurities 
and  difficulties  vanish.  The  hostility,  the  rancor,  the 
extensive  political  knowledge,  the  zeal,  the  determina- 
tion, the  unity  of  the  work  are  all  accounted  for.  And 
as  Mr.  Wilkes,  after  the  general  warrant  issued  against 
him  as  the  author,  ever  afterwards  plumed  himself  with 
the  feathers  of  the  noble  bird,  which  did  not  belong  to 
him,  it  is  no  wonder,  that  lord  Sackville,  who  alone  was 
acquainted  with  the  secret,  should  as  Junius  speak 
contemptuously  of  the  talents  of  Mr.  Wilkes  even  in 
the  height  of  his  fame,  and  should  even  tutor  him,  as 
he  did  in  one  of  his  letters  to  him,  on  his  making  him- 
self too  cheap,  and  lowering  his  dignity,  by  showing 
himself  so  frequently  in  the  streets  of  the  city. 

Mr.  Charles  Butler,  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  in 
reference  to  the  letters  of  Junius,  says, — "  No  one,  ac- 
quainted with  his  style,  can  suspect  for  a  moment,  that 
he  was  the  author  of  them  ;  the  merit  of  his  style  was 


NOTES.  175 

simplicity  ;  he  had  both  gaiety  and  strength,  but  to  the 
rancorous  sarcasm,  the  lofty  contempt,  with  which 
Junius'  Letters  abound,  no  one  was  a  greater  stranger, 
than  Mr.  Wilkes."  *  But  if  he  was  incapable  of  writ- 
ing the  letters  of  Junius,  he  was  also  incapable  of  writ- 
ing the  numbers  of  the  North  Briton,  which  are  filled 
with  the  same  sarcasm  and  the  same  rancor. 

Mr.  Butler  and  Mr.  Wilkes  had  many  conversations 
between  the  years  1776  and  1784  on  the  subject  of 
Junius'  Letters,  and  made  great  efforts  to  discover  the 
author.  "  Mr.  Wilkes  scouted  the  notion  of  Mr. 
Burke's  being  the  author  of  the  letters.  His  suspicions 
fell  on  Dr.  Butler,  bishop  of  Hereford."  But  for  rea- 
sons very  unsatisfactory  to  Mr.  Butler — "  Arguing  syn- 
thetically, we  determined,  that  Junius  must  be  a  resi- 
dent in  London,  or  its  environs,  from  the  immediate 
answers,  which  he  generally  gave  his  adversaries  ;  that 
he  was  not  an  author  by  profession,  from  the  visible 
improvement,  which  from  time  to  time  was  discernible 
in  his  style  ;  that  he  was  a  man  of  high  rank,  from  the 
tone  of  equality,  which  he  seemed  to  use  quite  naturally 
in  his  addresses  to  persons  of  rank,  and  in  his  expres- 
sions respecting  them ;  that  he  was  not  a  profound 
lawyer,  from  the  gross  inaccuracy  of  some  of  his  legal 
expressions ;  that  he  had  a  personal  animosity  against 
the  king,  the  duke  of  Bedford,  and  lord  Mansfield, 
from  the  bitterness  of  his  expressions  respecting  them  ; 

*  Butler's  Reminiscences,  p.  68. 


176  NOTES. 

that  he  had  lived  with  military  men  from  the  propriety 
of  his  language  on  military  subjects."  *  All  these  con- 
ditions, it  has  been  seen,  are  answered  by  the  situation 
and  character  of  lord  Sackville;  and  from  these  cir- 
cumstances Mr.  Butler  seems  inclined  to  think  the  evi- 
dence is  stronger  in  his  favor,  than  in  favor  of  any 
other  person.  Yet  the  evidence  he  deems  defective ; 
and  upon  the  whole  appears  disposed,  without  evidence, 
to  ascribe  the  authorship  of  the  letters  to  Mr.  Charles 
Lloyd,  private  secretary  of  Mr.  George  Grenville.  Dr. 
Parr  and  others  regarded  him  as  the  author.  The  only 
argument  in  his  favor  is,  that  when  he  died,  Junius 
ceased  to  write.  He  died  January  23,  1773,  four  days 
after  the  date  of  the  last  letter  of  Junius.  But  surely 
this  solitary  circumstance  ought  to  have  very  little 
weight.  Junius  had  ceased  to  write  for  the  public 
long  before  January  19,  the  date  of  his  last  private 
letter.  In  some  of  the  letters  of  Junius,  under  differ- 
ent signatures,  lord  Chatham  was  attacked  in  a  man- 
ner, which  could  not  have  proceeded  from  the  secreta- 
ry of  Mr.  George  Grenville,  who  was  the  brother-in- 
law  and  at  that  time  the  political  friend  of  lord  Chat- 
ham. The  Miscellaneous  Letters  of  16  February  and 
23  April,  17G8,  and  October  19, 1770,  may  be  referred  to 
on  this  point.  There  are  yet  other  insuperable  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  tracing  the  Letters  of  Junius  to  the  in- 
stigation of  Mr.  Grenville.     He  died  November,  1770, 


*  Butler's  Reminiscences,  p.  71. 


NOTES.  177 

when  the  Letters  of  Junius  were  but  half  written. — 
Having  been  the  associate  in  office  with  the  duke  of 
Bedford,  after  the  resignation  of  lord  Bute,  the  vehe- 
ment attack  of  the  duke  would  not  have  proceeded 
from  him. — Mr.  Lloyd  could  not  have  felt  the  influence 
of  those  motives,  which  only  can  account  for  the  writ- 
ings of  Junius.  Besides,  Junius,  with  apparent  hones- 
ty, disclaimed  any  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
Grenville. — Lord  Sackville  adopted  Mr.  Grenville's 
views  as  to  America  ;  and  he  might  have  hoped,  if  Mr. 
Grenville  were  restored  to  the  ministry,  to  take  office 
with  him. 

Junius  requested  of  Woodfall  a  set  of  his  letters  ; — 
"  let  me  have  a  set,  bound  in  vellum,  gilt  and  lettered, 
as  handsome  as  you  can — the  edges  gilt — let  the  sheets 
he  well  dried  before  binding ^  There  is  very  little  rea- 
son to  suppose  these  two  vellum  volumes  are  in  the 
Grenville  family,  as  Mr.  Butler,  though  a  lawyer,  sup- 
poses without  reason  and  proof;  but,  if  the  argument 
of  this  book  is  not  fallacious,  probably  they  might  be 
found,  if  they  have  not  been  destroyed,  in  a  secret  cab- 
inet of  the  present  Duke  of  Dorset,  the  son  of  lord 
George  Sackville. 

IL 

The  author  has  unexpectedly,  since  writing  the  pre- 
ceding note,,  obtained  additional  proof  in  favor  of  his 
views  concerning  the  origin  of  the  North  Briton  and  of 
the  Letters  of  Junius.     The  limits  of  a  note  will  not 


178 


NOTES. 


allow  him  fully  to  explain  this  confirmatory  evidence  ; 
but  he  cannot  forbear  alluding  to  it  and  giving  a  brief 
account  of  it, 

"  The  Political  Register,"  a  monthly  political  Jour- 
nal, was  publishsd  at  London  by  Almon  in  May,  1767, 
and  was  continued  till  June,  1771,  or  later.  This 
work  has  been  ascribed  to  Wilkes  and  Lloyd,  but  erro- 
neously ;  for  Lloyd  was  dead,  and  Wilkes  was  an  out- 
law at  Paris,  and  did  not  return  till  1768.  Besides,  in 
some  of  the  numbers  the  character  of  Mr.  Wilkes  was 
attacked,  though  from  public  views  he  was  generally 
supported.  It  is  certain,  then,  that  Mr.  Wilkes  was 
not  the  editor;  yet  he  may  have  been  an  occasional 
contributor. 

In  this  work  many  of  the  letters  of  Junius  were  re- 
published, and  without  any  intimation,  that  they  had 
been  printed  in  the  Public  Advertiser.  Several  of  the 
miscellaneous  letters  of  the  same  writer,  under  differ- 
ent signatures,  were  also  republished  ;  as  Poplicola,  in 
the  first  number.  There  are  also  various  communica- 
tions in  the  Register,  evidently  from  the  same  pen. 

In  the  number  for  March,  1768,  there  is  a  piece  of 
fourteen  pages,  called  "  A  Fragment,  containing 
many  interesting  and  constitutional  remarks  on  the 
case  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  written  in  the  summer  of  1763 ; 
and  now  first  published."  This  was  evidently  written 
by  the  author  of  the  North  Briton,  and  it  affords  evi- 
dence also  of  coming  from  the  author  of  the  letters  of 
Junius.     Had  Wilkes  written  it,  he  would  have  pub- 


NOTES.  179 

lished  it  before  his  trial  in  1764.  It  was  doubtless  put 
to  press  in  1768,  before  Mr.  Wilkes  returned  from 
Paris. 

It  begins  with  the  very  military  allusions  of  Junius, 
— "  The  ministers  were  the  aggressors  in  the  political 
warfare  of  defamatory  writings :  Their  great  cham- 
pions first  took  up  arms ;  but  neither  abilities,  false- 
hoods, nor  pay  could  keep  the  mercenaries  in  the  field. 
They  were  fairly  beat,  and  retired.  Then  their  mas- 
ters, pricked  with  pungent  retaliation,  armed  with  irre- 
sistible evidence  of  fact,  used  the  corps  de  reserve  of 
power,  and  called  for  the  artillery  of  the  law  to  defeat 
their  adversaries,  on  whom  they  could  make  no  im- 
pression by  answers,  argument,  nor  by  corruption." 

The  following  sentences  seem  to  intimate,  that  the 
North  Briton  had  not  been  correctly  ascribed  to  Mr. 
Wilkes : — "  Can  the  strongest  prejudices  carry  any 
man,  who  will  use  his  own  eyes  and  understanding,  to 
believe,  that  the  author  of  the  North  Briton,  number 
forty-five,  be  he  who  he  will,  meant  an  insult  to  the 
King  ?  All,  he  has  said,  is  levelled  against  the  minis- 
ters, and  he  expresses,  in  a  variety  of  sentences,  the 
utmost  respect  for  his  Sovereign ;  a  heart-felt  duty  and 
affection  to  his  person  ;  a  high  veneration  for  his  quali- 
ties ;  and  an  undissembled  attachment  to  his  royal 
house,  and  the  succession  to  the  crown  in  the  protes- 
tant  line." — '*  It  was  therefore  very  artful  to  raise  a 
cry  against  the  alleged  author  of  the  North  Briton." 


180  NOTES. 

The  following  passage  will  lead  one  to  believe,  that 
the  author  was  not  Mr.  Wilkes,  but  a  member  of  a 
great  Whig  family,  who  had  a  personal  interest,  as 
Sackville  had,  in  the  distribution  of  the  royal  patron- 
age : — "  The  author  has  waged  perpetual  war  with 
Toryism  and  disaffection.  Nothing  has  been  more 
complained  of  in  the  whole  course  of  the  paper,  than 
that,  ever  since  the  Favorite's  influence  became  pre- 
dominant, the  staunch,  known,  and  tried  friends  of  the 
royal  family  have  been  depressed  ;  and  the  avowed 
enemies  of  it  unreasonably  elevated,  rather  than  sin- 
cerely converted ;  a  thing  very  desirable,  but  of  which 
their  insolence  towards  the  natural  stock,  that  needed 
no  conversion,  which  they  have  remarkably  shown, 
since  they  found  themselves  in  favor,  is  but  a  sad 
proof.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  think,  that  such  a  writer 
should  mean  to  give  a  personal  affront  to  the  king. — It 
is  impossible  to  torture  it  into  an  insult  to  Majesty, 
unless  the  word  minister  is  the  same  with  the  word 
king.'''' 

The  antithesis  of  Junius  is  seen  in  the  following  : — 
"  But  to  stir  up  royal  anger  with  fictitious  affronts  is 
the  injury  of  an  enemy,  not  the  kindness  of  a  friend, — 
the  art  of  a  sycophant,  not  the  fidelity  of  a  minister." 

We  find  also  the  defects  of  Junius  as  to  grammar  : — 
"  his  locks  were  broke  open,  and  his  papers  carried 
away  ;" — "  In  short,  every  barrier  has  been  hy-oke 
through ;"  and  also  a  frequent  metaphor  of  Junius  : — 
"  State  their  conduct  in  its  true  colors  to  his  majesty: " 


NOTES.  '  181 

— "  under  color  of  making  his  majesty  resent  an  insult 
to  himself." 

Sackville  is  alluded  to  as  follows  : — "  Part  of  his 
indignation  against  the  minister  is  for  not  shewing  a 
due  regard  for  the  honor  either  of  our  late  gracious 
sovereign,  or  of  his  present  majesty, — '  Was  it  (says 
he)  a  tender  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  late  king,  or 
of  his  present  majesty,  that  invited  to  court  lord 
George  Sackville  ? '  " 

Perhaps  it  may  be  thought,  that  if  Sackville  himself 
was  the  author  of  the  Fragment,  he  would  not  have 
quoted  the  North  Briton  apparently  in  derogation  of 
his  own  honor.  But  at  this  period,  when  Sackville 
was  in  the  ranks  of  the  opposition  to  the  ministry,  if 
Mr.  Wilkes  was  the  author,  he  would  not  have  insert- 
ed the  name  of  Sackville,  with  the  probability  thereby 
of  creating  an  enemy  to  his  own  cause ;  especially  as 
he  was  about  to  return  to  England  and  to  offer  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  election  to  parliament.  But  Sack- 
ville might  thus  quote  the  North  Briton  for  the  very 
purpose  of  obviating  suspicion  towards  himself 

In  the  same  volume  of  the  Register  (II.  408)  a 
writer  in  the  St.  James'  Chronicle,  whose  signature  is 
A.  B.,  May  2,  1768,  also  vindicates  the  North  Briton 
No.  45 : — he  is  probably  the  very  author  of  the  Frag- 
ment. It  would  seem,  that  he  was  a  member  of  par- 
liament : — "  Lord  North  could  not  find  one  wox^  false 
in  that  whole  paper,  although  he  was  challenged  to  it 
in  express  words  by  Mr.  Wilkes,  in  the  House  of  Com- 

16 


182  NOTES. 

mons,  when  his  lordship  almost  choaked  himself,  as 
well  as  stunned  his  audience,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
session,  in  1763.  /  was  present^  I  saw  him  foam  at 
the  mouth,  and  heard  him  guggle  in  the  throat,  that  I 
thought  he  would  have  been  strangled." 

This  use  of  the  word  that  is  not  English ;  but  is  in 
the  manner  of  the  Scotch  and  Irish. — The  writer  then 
proceeds  to  state  some  facts  relating  to  the  German 
war,  which  can  hardly  be  attributed  to  Mr.  Wilkes,  but 
which  would  have  been  familiar  to  Sackville.  He  says 
also — "  I  heard  lord  Bute  declare  in  a  great  assembly, 
that  the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Prussia  were  to  he 
scrambled  for ;  the  most  indecent,  vulgar,  and  infa- 
mous expression  for  an  ally  of  the  crown  of  England, 
which  any  minister  ever  uttered."  Would  Mr.  Wilkes 
have  been  likely  to  recollect  and  repeat  this  remark  of 
Bute  ;  and  to  have  felt  so  warmly  on  the  subject  ? 

The  same  writer,  A.  B.  also,  at  the  same  time,  wrote 
for  the  Public  Advertiser,  and  says, — "  The  famous 
No.  45  being  now  triumphant,  and  every  objection  to  it 
having  been  fully  answered."  From  Woodfall's  edition 
it  appears,  that  Junius  wrote  a  note  November  5, 1768, 
under  the  signature  of  A.  B. 

The  first  piece  in  the  first  number  of  the  Political 
Register  bears  the  stamp  of  Junius  ; — entitled,  "  Re- 
marks on  the  Principles  of  the  British  Government." 
The  writer  says, — "  A  minister,  whose  maiden  political 
talents  had  not  yet  been  fleshed,^^  This  was  published 
May,  1767.    In  October,  1768,  the  author  of  the  letters 


NOTES.  183 

of  Junius  writes, — '*  His  Grace  had  honorably  fleshed 
his  maiden  sword  in  the  field  of  opposition."  Did  Ju- 
nius condescend  to  borrow  the  phrase  from  the  Regis- 
ter ;  or  are  Junius  and  the  writer  for  the  Register  the 
same  person  ? 

This  writer  also  speaks  of  "planting  thorns  in  the 
king's  crown  ; "  and  Junius  alludes  to  Mr.  Wilkes, 
July,  1771,  as  "  a  thorn  in  the  king's  side." 

This  writer,  in  the  Register  for  September,  1767, 
speaking  of  "  Prerogative,"  says,  "  It  is,  in  reality,  no 
more  than  that  share  of  the  government,  which  is  vest- 
ed in  the  crown  as  the  balance  of  the  constitution,  and 
for  the  general  welfare  of  the  community.  It  is  in 
itself,  in  every  part,  a  trust  for  the  people,  not  a  per- 
sonal or  patrimonial  property  or  estate  of  the  prince." 
Junius  says,  in  his  Dedication,  "  The  power  of  king, 
lords,  and  commons  is  not  an  arbitrary  power ;  they 
are  the  trustees^  not  the  owners  of  the  estate.  The 
fee-simple  is  in  us :  they  cannot  alienate,  they  cannot 


waste." 


This  writer  says, — "  There  is  no  fear,  that  a  sove- 
reign, embued  with  the  principles,  and  enamored  with 
the  glories  of  this  constitution, — will  ever  think  of 
plucking  away  the  smallest  part  of  so  rich  a  plumage.'''' 
Was  this  the  origin  of  the  unequalled  metaphor  of 
Junius  1 — "  Private  credit  is  wealth  ; — public  honor  is 
security. — The  feather  that  adorns  the  royal  bird,  sup- 
ports his  flight.  Strip  him  of  his  plumage^  and  you  fix 
him  to  the  earth." 


184  NOTES. 

The  writer  of  notes  on  the  works  of  Mr.  Churchill  in 
the  first  volume  of  the  Register,  says,  that  Mr.  Wilkes 
had  been  some  months  at  Winchester,  guarding  the 
French  prisoners,  when  a  friend  wrote  to  him,  that  Mr. 
Hogarth  was  preparing  his  abusive  print  of  The  Times. 
Mr.  Wilkes  replied,  that  if  he  thought  the  North  Briton 
would  insert  what  he  should  send,  he  would  appeal  to 
the  public  on  the  Saturday  following  the  publication  of 
the  print.  The  Times  soon  appeared,  and  the  next 
Saturday  the  seventeenth  number  of  the  North  Briton. 
"  If  Mr.  Wilkes  did  write  that  paper,  he  kept  his 
word."  This  number  was  printed  at  London,  Septem- 
ber 25,  1762.  At  that  time  Mr.  Wilkes  was  far  distant 
from  London  ;  either  at  Winchester,  or  on  a  journey 
to  the  Isle  of  Wight.  Of  course,  it  is  altogether  im^ 
probable,  that  he  wrote  No.  17 ;  and  although,  after 
one  fire,  in  the  duel  with  Talbot,  he  prudently  "  avow- 
ed "  the  offensive  No.  12,  and  thus  escaped  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  hazardous  trial  of  skill,  yet  it  seems  very 
clear  also,  that  he  could  not  have  written  that  number, 
dated  August  21,  inasmuch  as  he  was  then  a  resident 
at  Winchester. 

It  has  been  stated,  that  A.  B.  was  written  by  Junius 
in  1768,  and  hence  inferred,  that  A.  B.  in  the  Register 
was  from  the  same  pen.  But  it  may  be  thought  an  ob- 
jection to  this  conclusion,  that  Junius,  November,  1769, 
disclaimed  being  the  author  of  a  piece,  then  published 
with  the  signature  of  A.  B.  Nothstanding  this  disclaim- 
er, there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  Junius  did  actually 


NOTES.  185 

write  A.  B.  among  the  Miscellaneous  Letters,  published 
November  10th.  It  is  in  his  style  :  it  was  printed  by 
his  desire.  Would  he  have  requested  the  publication, 
if  he  had  not  been  the  author  ?  It  is  true,  Mr.  Wood- 
fall  was  directed  to  deny  it ;  but  Junius  had  in  the  pre- 
ceding month  directed  the  denial  of  one  of  his  unques- 
tioned letters ;  that  to  Junia.  Among  the  reasons  for 
the  denial  of  A.  B.  one  is  obvious, — that  as  he  had  in- 
advertently employed  the  signature,  which  he  frequent- 
ly used  in  the  Political  Register,  and  as  Messala  had 
expressly  ascribed  A.  B.  to  Junius,  the  danger  of  the 
detection  of  Junius  would  be  increased,  if  the  identity 
of  A.  B.  and  Junius  were  admitted,  or  were  not  denied. 

There  are  yet  other  proofs,  that  Junius  was  a  con- 
tributor to  the  Political  Register,  His  first  public  Let- 
ter of  January  21,  1769,  appeared  in  the  Register  for 
February  as  an  original  communication  ;  introduced 
thus — ''For  the  Political  Register;"  and  there  is  no 
intimation,  that  it  had  been  printed  in  the  Advertiser. 

A  writer  in  the  Register  for  January,  1768,  speaks  of 
lord  Bute  as  "  the  mighty  Thane.  So  also  B.  F.  in  the 
Register  for  September,  1768,  publishes  an  ''account  of 
the  flight  of  the  Scottish  Thane.'^  Now  Junius  applies 
the  same  term  to  the  earl  in  his  letter  of  April  5,  1768, 
— "  Let  the  Thane  look  to  himself" 

In  the  Register  for  March,  1768,  the  first  miscellane- 
ous letter  of  Junius,  as  given  by  Woodfall,  dated  Febru- 
ary 16th,  is  republished,  headed  thus,  "  On  putting  the 
Privy  Seal  into  Commission.     (See  the  Political  Barom- 


186  NOTES. 

eter  in  this  number.)"  This  title  is  absent  from  Wood- 
fall's  edition  ;  it  was  doubtless  given  by  the  author,  and 
renders  it  probable,  that  Junius  wrote  the  Political  Ba- 
rometer. The  first  number  of  the  Barometer  was  for 
September,  1767,  furnished  by  one  of  the  Editor's  cor- 
respondents, who  promised  a  continuation,  and  said, 
"  only  such  occurrences  will  be  inserted,  as  are  strictly 
political,  or  are  of  importance  to  the  public,  or  in  some 
degree  affect  the  administration  of  government ;  and 
many  facts  loill  here  make  their  first  appearance  in 
print."  This  intimates  a  writer  conversant  with  the 
court  and  engaged  in  public  affairs.  As  a  specimen  of 
his  chronology,  take  the  following  : — "  September  9. 
Lord  Mansfield  was  at  court,  and  had  the  honor  of  a 
conference  in  the  closet. — His  lordship  was  appointed 
chancellor, — 10.  A  great  lady  paid  a  long  visit  to  a 
great  personage.  All  hopes  of  an  able  and  permanent 
administration  vanished. — 12.  Lord  Bute  came  to 
town.  15.  Lord  Barrington  came  to  town." — "  Octo- 
her  5.  Lord  North  appointed  chancellor."  November. 
Extract  of  a  letter  from  Corke ..."  The  late  commoner 
was  longer  the  idol  of  this  country,  than  of  yours  . . .  We 
now  despise  and  contemn  him  . . .  Lord  Temple  is  the 
idol  of  this  country  for  his  steady  opposition  to  the 
Thane  and  faithful  attachment  to  liberty." — ''February, 
1768.  Such  is  the  divided  and  inharmonious  state  of 
the  ministers,  that  those,  who  know  most  of  their  situa- 
tion, make  no  scruple  of  asserting,  they  cannot  stand 
six  months  as  they  are." — Many  pages  of  the  Barome- 


NOTES. 


187 


ter  for  July  and  August,  1768,  are  devoted  to  the  affairs 
of  Mr.  Wilkes,  and  A.  B.  is  reprinted  in  it  from  the  St. 
James'  Chronicle.  ^45  a  part  of  the  Barometer,  in  the 
Register  for  October,  1768,  the  letters  of  Lucius  (Ju- 
nius under  that  signature)  are  republished.  So  the  let- 
ters of  Atticus  (by  Junius)  are  a  part  of  the  Barometer 

for  November,  1768. 

How  then  can  it  be  doubted,  that  Junius  wrote  the 
Barometer,  and  A.  B.,  as  well  as  the  North  Briton  ? 
And  as  A.  B.  in  June  or  July,  1768,  speaks  of  the  "  in- 
solent Scot  as  trampling  on  the  ancient  nohility  of  this 
kingdom,"  it  is  probable  the  writer  belonged  to  a  nohle 
family. 

Various  other  considerations,  which  cannot  in  this 
note  be  explained,  have  led  to  the  undoubted  conclu- 
sion, that  lord  Sackville  was  the  principal  writer  for 
the  Political  Register.  By  his  own  acknowledgment  to 
Mr.  Home  in  1771,  he  had  written  "numberless  trifles." 


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